When he was Gone
by cloisharley
Summary: Damon has been gone for 2 months and everyone is noticing that you can't stop 2 people that belong together. A creative re-write of the beginnings of season 4 with one major plot change that impacts the timeline we know and love. We get inside the minds of the characters as they weigh in on all things Delena. More Summary inside…
1. Stefan

If you've only just finished season 3 of vampire diaries then you shouldn't read this. This is all the spoiler warning you gonna get.

If Elena had never become a vampire and Damon had left. This story picks up 2 months after Damon has gone and we see snapshots of how they are dealing with the separation through the eyes of their friends.

I've changed this one thing - Elena Didn't drown in Matt's truck so she never became a vampire, everything in my story flows on from that. Basically we have the start of season 4 in a whole new light with some creative invention on my part. Keeping the focus still on Damon and Elena you will see some of my ideas for what would have happened with the other storylines but I didn't want to get bogged down too much in it - this is Delena all the way.

You may enjoy some pleasant flashbacks and familiar lines from season 4 which I'm sure fans will love - but as you are fans you will obviously know that I did not write them nor do I own these wonderful characters.

I hope you enjoy the story folks, it was written because it was one of the stories I was wanting to read.

Also, the story is completely finished, just the epilogue to write and that's it so updates will be pretty regular.

* * *

 **\- CHAPTER 1 -**

* * *

 **STEFAN POV**

Its been 2 months.

She doesn't come over to the house as much as she used to - I usually pick her up at her place. I tell myself that I meet her there because it's on the way to wherever we're going, that it gives her more time to get ready, more time with Jeremy, but I know its more than that.

The few times that she's been back here she's been a million miles away during any conversation we have. Physically she could be right beside me but really I've lost her to her thoughts and her searching. Looking for someone who isn't there. Tonight will be no different.

I hear her car pull up and listen to the slow hesitant steps she makes towards the front door. Often I have stood just like this, out of sight as she closes the heavy door behind her and lets her eyes glance around the room. Before long she is drawn towards the fire and her approach to it begins her ritual searching; passing by particular items that no doubt cast her into the memories attached to them. She gently clasps the vervain necklace resting on her chest as she slowly passes the bannister to the side of the room, I would be a fool to assume that she's thinking of me. Some first edition novels that lie abandoned nearby make her pause as she traces the covers with her finger tips. Her eyes trail over the sofa, the end chair, the fireplace, and finally land on their intended destination. The decanter of bourbon stands silent on the side table, the flames from the fire dancing of of the crystal, reflecting an illusion of life in this dark place. This is where I find her. Staring at the empty glasses, the full bottles and the quiet room.

I think she hears me as I approach. I haven't attempted to sneak up on her but it's hard to tell if she's aware of her surroundings or if she's lost in thought. I'm not even sure if she knows she's doing all this, that she's searching. She's looking for something and I don't even think she knows what she expects to find. Although this happens every time she enters this house it's not the only place that it happens.

She is always looking for him.

We go to The Grill and she glances over at an empty seat at the bar, or an unnaturally shaped stranger that's filling the space. She plays with her phone more than she used to. I suspect its so that she can stare at the screen, a default setting of hers as she waits for a text that hasn't come through.

Waiting.

When the phone finally makes a text alert I have to watch as I see her face fall slightly in disappointment when its only from Caroline or Bonnie. I've watched her from across a crowded room as I've rang her and she stares at the screen, delaying answering before she smiles a sad smile and I hear her voice speak. I wonder does she realise just how much she misses him.

The connection that they had, whatever it was, hasn't gone or diminished - it's just left a space inside her. I suspect the same is true for him. Damon never dealt with pain or hurt feelings particularly well. I imagine wherever he is it is coloured by a lot of bourbon and not a little violence.

I know she wonders where he's at. He never told her, he never told any of us. Though I suspect Ric knows something. True to his word Damon left and hasn't tried to disrupt the ebb and flow of life in Mystic Falls with even one phone call or text. But his absence has created even more of a presence in our lives at times than if he had walked into the room, casually confident with a sarcastic remark and fell back on the sofa as if he had never left.

I miss him too.

The one thing that I have wanted all these 170 plus years was to have my brother at my side. To save him. And I had that for a while.

We had each others backs, we had similar goals if not methods, but unfortunately we loved the same woman. Again. History repeating and all that, and yet not at all like it was that last time. Elena is not Katherine. She saw something in my brother before even I did, something worth saving, and him loving her has been the best thing that I've ever seen happen to him. It gave me my brother back.

I've seen how she loves him too. I see it even more now that he's gone, even though she won't admit it to herself. Her loving him turned his world upside down in ways that I know have left him stumbling about in feelings he has no idea how to deal with. Something inside him that once raged in chaos now burns in passion for her. How do you compete with that?

I join her at the fireplace now and we both stare into the flames as I wrap my arms around her. She falls back against my chest and we stand there comfortably watching the flames flicker.

I consider that maybe it's not about competing with Damon, I don't want to be against him, I love both of them. What this is really all about is waiting for her to realise that the choice is completely in her hands. I don't want to lose her and this may be something that I regret later, but I've always wanted her to make her own decisions. I'm not that great at making decisions for people. Damon is an excellent example of that.

As much as I am pulled towards her, drawn in by everything that she is, a part of me feels like I am just following behind as she finds her way back to him. Always finding her way back to him. One day I'm going to stop walking behind and I'm not even sure if she'll notice that I'm not there.

That last thought is a little too introspective even for me and I allow myself to smile a little as the fact is that currently I do have her in my arms, if only for a little while.

She sways a little and I tighten around her slightly, unsure of what's happening, but I quickly realise that she is dancing. Lightly shifting her body back and forth and pulling me with her. It's been a while since I've danced with her and I wasn't exactly my best self on that occasion. She turns in my arms to wrap hers around my neck and it's a nice moment, just the two of us, so I kiss her, just lightly and rest my head against hers. I savour this normal moment between us that I can give her. Everything will change tomorrow.

She doesn't know it yet but trouble is coming, reaching in to shatter our little world and we're going to need help. So I'll dance with her now, even if she is distracted and i'll hold her close and kiss her while she's mine to kiss because I might not be so lucky to keep her. This sort of impending doom requires back-up and risk and there's only one other person who I know will protect Elena as fiercely as I can.

I'm meeting Ric later tonight and after that I have a phone call to make.


	2. Alaric

Previously on vampire diaries…

Stefan POV …

…This sort of impending doom requires back-up and risk and there's only one other person who I know will protect Elena as fiercely as I can.

I'm meeting Ric later tonight and after that I have a phone call to make…

One week since Stefan made the Phone call…

* * *

 **\- CHAPTER 2 —**

* * *

 **ALARIC POV**

He's a mess.

He's out there dancing in the middle of the floor with two women grinding up against him and a bottle of bourbon hanging from his hand. It's a small out of the way bar in Atlanta that doesn't really have room to dance and yet here we are. Well there _**he**_ is anyways. I'm right here at the bar drinking and watching this mess unfold out into the glory that is Damon Salvatore processing his feelings.

This will go well…

I've seen this continuous bender go the same way every time with few changes, all of them ending in some show of violence. The women always belong to somebody else, their partners inevitably show up and Damon relishes in the brawl that ensues. Mostly the men get to leave with their own free will intact although not necessarily conscious. Sometimes they leave compelled and telling ridiculous stories to the police and end up in prison - but that's only if Damon is feeling particularly petty. He's such an ass.

I suppose he could be a bigger ass and kill them all… I can't believe I'm actually considering that that is a huge step of character - the fact that he doesn't kill everybody. I could kill people too you know. I got some blood lust of my own to work with right now, but you don't see me out there in a sea of cleavage dancing like a gigolo.

It's been a while since Bonnie managed to subdue the killer in me and I still can't get used to the idea of drinking blood even when I crave it but I like to think I'm coping. I'm doing better than him. And if that is the bar that I am setting for myself I admit it's a low one but it's what I've got to work with so I'll take it. The bourbon helps too.

It's nice to know that even though it requires severe drinking to get the same buzz, it in no way endangers my liver. But so help me if there was a cure for vampirism I would take it and I seal that thought with a shot as I slam the empty glass back unto the bar. It smashes - I really need to watch my strength. Damon would be mildly helpful in that area if he wasn't the aforementioned mess that he is. What an ass.

I might actually be drunk. It's calming the tempting thoughts of blood quite well though. Not exactly hitting that spot but at least leaving the room pleasantly fuzzy. Damon and his partners are just gyrating shapes to me now. Thank goodness.

I've watched this whole 'will-they-won't-they' disaster practically from the beginning. I've seen little things stirring and becoming something else. I was the one who told him to take a beat on the whole Elena thing after all. I'm not exactly her guardian but I do care about her. She and Jeremy are practically family. What exactly are you meant to call the biological daughter of your vampire ex-wife who is also the niece of your deceased girlfriend? I've had too much alcohol to process that one…

I remember the night I was fighting Damon, not even aware I was close to killing my friend, just doing what I had been made for. I felt myself choking and out of the blue, a rush of water comes from my throat and never quite clears. I went down hard and Damon hung over me repeating "You can't be dead, you can't be dead." I knew who he was talking about. The relief on his face when I started to come around again lasted long enough for him to knock me unconscious. I woke up in the Salvatore cellar, chained and out of my head, with Bonnie on the other side of the door directing an incantation at me. It's a crazy world.

I call Damon over to the bar, hopefully if I can get through this conversation he will be too distracted to cause mayhem. He hears me and more surprisingly he abandons bump and grind on the sticky bar floor and slides into the seat beside me. He knows why i'm here of course, Stefan already made the call a week ago. He knows that he needs to come back to Mystic Falls on a more permanent basis. He showed up just in time to fight and then left again once everything was over. I'm pretty sure there was somebody who was looking to talk to him.

I'm not even sure if Elena even got to see him at all, she was trying pretty hard to show that it didn't bother her. Though I don't want to lump her into the same category as Damon I'm fairly sure they're both idiots.

He drinks the last of his bourbon straight from the bottle and I can tell that he is really far gone tonight. He looks pissed and dangerous, which is Damon code for hurt but really isn't going to help you out much when he rips you apart. I'm not worried for myself but the rest of the clientele should probably clear out. One of the dancing women approaches us and I 'suggest' she takes her friend and goes home. Not surprisingly she listens to me. Compulsion saves the day.

Damon looks mildly impressed at me and it seems to have dropped the flare that was glowering on his face. This is where the words are meant to come and so I take another shot and let them flow.

"You're an ass."

* * *

 **RIC POV CONT'D**

* * *

"You're an ass."

"Yes, well… I'm me. And also I'm a little day drunk. Apparently that's not my most _attractive_ look."

Having finished his bottle he is now spinning it lazily on the bar counter top, nothing good brewing in his mind. I stop the continuous wearing noise before Damon can make a suggestion for 'live or die' - his own version of Russian Roulette with the other drunks in this dive.

He smirks and lets me take it away from him while I push a shot from my own collection in his direction. "Well now that I know you're not here for the good times Ric why don't you tell me why you have arrived in this, my sunny side of hell?"

I wait until he swallows the shot before answering. "She misses you."

"Oh yeah? Well people who make choices need to deal with the consequences. The rest of us are. I warned her about making decisions but she always insists in doing it."

"Yes, because _your_ decisions are a work of genius."

He slams the glass down hard on the table breaking it - "My decisions didn't get her almost dead."

"No, no of course not. Your past decisions have only included killing her brother, forcing your blood down her throat and sleeping with Rebecca Michelson, to name a few! _Rebecca Michelson!_ Now that was crazy even for you. Andy, I could understand…"

His demeanour calms slightly, "While I normally consider that hot trumps weird, you are right. Rebecca was not the smartest revenge sex i've ever had."

"You've had _smart_ revenge sex?" At last he looks at me with something like a flicker of a smirk and now I know I might have a chance at him hearing me out. He senses this change in the atmosphere and droops back down into his chair leaning heavy on the bar. Here goes.

"You need to come back."

He actually sighs, "Trust me Ric, she doesn't want me back."

I roll my eyes and he interrupts me, "Then trust me when I say, I don't want to go back."

"Well that's just lies. Where is Damon Salvatore bringer of bare faced truth?"

"He's a liar. Always has been." He steals another shot from my bottle.

"I was gonna say he's scared." He turns fierce blue eyes on me then, lifting out of his seat and getting right in my face and I could be dead if I wasn't already. But we've been down that road together before, it just never works out.

"She is the one who's scared… I'm not getting into this with you."

"Yes, well you came home for all of one night and didn't get into any of this with her either so now here I am trying to get through to one of you. I was actually thinking she would be the reasonable one but so far this is more than I got out of her!"

He stands there a little unsure where to go with this information so I continue before he gets direction. "If you think you're doing all this for her then you're doing a lousy job of it. Of this… whatever the hell you're doing out here, instead of being back in Mystic Falls. You're Miserable."

"You're not looking so chipper yourself Ric."

"Yeah well, like I said my buddy's an ass."

We stare each other out for a moment before he finally speaks. "I said I would stay away I didn't say it would make me happy. I don't want to do this Ric, I'm not the good guy remember? I'm the selfish one. I take what I want, I do what I want. I lie to my brother, I fall in love with his girl, I don't do the right thing! But I have to do the right thing by her."

"What happens when it's not the right thing anymore? What happens when trouble comes and you're not close enough to save her? What happens when you're just another person that she has lost from her life? Cause that's happening right now buddy."

I Grab him by the shoulders and look him dead in the eye.

"Stop moping around here pretending like your switch is off so you don't have to deal with the fact that what you feel for her is real."

The wounded look pulls back leaving his eyes dark and cold as he yanks himself out of my grasp and storms out of the bar.

Well that went well.

* * *

Sorry for my vagueness on how Ric is in his right mind by Bonnie simply doing magic. But we're rolling with it cause why not? Bonnie still had her magic at the start of season 4 although she used it to put Klaus back in his own body and out of Tylers and apparently that pissed of the dead witches and they kinda took her mojo... Unfortunately that was too much story for this humble novice to untangle... and also, I may have written this chapter before I was reminded of that scene. Plus I love nice Alaric, the crazy Alaric would mess up this story. In short I'm all for a bit of vague magic. :D


	3. Matt

AUTHOR NOTE:  
So… Matt is alive. I said Elena didn't die and become a vampire but I didn't want it to be at the expense of Matt's life. Plus he has a unique insider perspective on Delena at that point - but I'll let him do the talking.

* * *

\- CHAPTER 3 -

* * *

 **The day after the scene at the bar…**

 **MATT POV**

Just another quiet day at the Grill. The same usual customers and everything seemingly normal in this far from normal town.

Mystic Falls has not got any safer with Damon gone, although I would have liked it better if he and Stefan had never come in the first place. Though maybe I could be ok with Stefan being around - after all he did jump into a freezing cold river and pull me and Elena from my truck so that we didn't drown… I was out of it at the time but I saw him afterwards when I was spitting up water. Sometimes you have to be thankful - even to vampires.

At one time I never got this thing between Elena and the two of them. But I understood not wanting the people you love to keep dying around you. For a while she had two people in her life that could have loved her forever, literally. Since Damon left she's just lost one of those people - a person she thought she couldn't lose. A person she once thought had got so far under her skin that she couldn't shake him and now he's just gone. Whatever her feelings were for him that night on the bridge, I think they've finally got to a place where she can't ignore them anymore.

She tries to hide them from everybody although it's completely pointless to try that with me. I think sometimes she forgets that I was involved in the plan to take her out of Mystic Falls for her own protection, that it was me that night driving her across Wickory Bridge. I heard her side of the phone call that she made to Damon. She was so wrapped up in what she had been trying to say that the shock of the accident afterwards probably imprinted the words of that conversation in her mind. I'm sure the pain of that decision is burned into her memory.

I remember it too.

The bad thing about a quiet day at The Grill is that it gives me too much time to think and as I get to work doing a wipe down of empty tables I inevitably drag my mind back to the night of the accident, back to fleeing from the dark and desperate intentions of our resident Original vampires. It isn't long before I can see it all clearly and hear the tremor in Elena's voice as she had that moment with Damon…

After the general ' _How are you_?' questions were answered she looked over at me and I knew she was looking for the strength to say something almost impossible. To be honest. Damon had asked her a question, I'm guessing " _where are you_?" was what he had wanted to know. I'm sure the long pause she made was probably enough for Damon to figure it all out and fill in the blanks - Stefan being one of those blanks and a few of our friends tipping the scale in his favour. Elena already had me driving her back to them and further away from Damon.

 _ **"Matt's taking me home."**_

I blink out of that memory and another thought enters my head. I sometimes wonder if we hadn't fought the night her parents died would I have driven her home after the bonfire was over? Would it have been us going over the bridge that night instead of them? For us to be in the crash this time its almost like this was waiting to happen to us eventually.  
It's a dark place to go to but its a thought that has run around my head making plays for attention during some of my quiet moments. Whether or not it was fated to happen it doesn't really matter- I was just as keen as Elena was to get home and see my friends that night in case anything happened. With Klaus supposedly dead, it would have meant his entire sire line was going to be wiped out with him. People I knew were going to die. Yet even with all that at stake, I probably would have still driven her to Damon if that had been her choice.

Her choice.

I don't know what Damon asked her on the phone after that but I heard her answer. I know he heard the same words that I did but considering what I knew, I'm not sure he understood them the way I did. After all the things I had seen the summer they spent looking for Stefan, the months they spent trying to get out of klaus's grasp, all the other tiny moments witnessed by me an unseen onlooker, I knew how they both felt. Damon isn't subtle, and Elena? She once told me that ' _You should love the person that makes you glad that you're alive_ '. She had been talking about how being with Stefan after losing her parents had helped her figure this out. The problem she claimed, was Damon. When she was with him, he consumed her. Even at this point I don't think she really saw how much of her was already tangled up in him. I don't even think she knew how much she stared at him, or looked for him in a room, listened to his opinion - even when she thought it was crazy. Stefan might have given her a reason to live but the closer she got to Damon the more she actually came to life. You could read everything she felt in her eyes, her face and her voice…

Once again I am back in my mind behind the wheel of my truck, Elena talking on the phone beside me. I remember the change in her voice, her emotions starting to get the best of her as she said

 _ **"I love him Damon."**_

Even I felt the punch from that statement.

 _ **"No Matter what I feel for you… I never un-fell for him."**_

And wasn't that the truth? The timing only a little off, Stefan only back in his right mind and all this happening right now forcing her hand when she was still stuck in between. Forcing her to choose right then, in that moment, and that was all she could think about, she couldn't think about always. Which considering how the night went there may be a point in there. All you really have is right now.

 _ **"I mean maybe if you and I had met first…"**_

We always wonder about the past, all those if and but moments. Playing around with that ancient memory in my head again, the end of our freshman school year, the bonfire, our fight, her parents picking her up. How would Damon have even fit into that? If she had met Damon before the crash and before Stefan pulled her out of the wreck, before everything went wrong and crazy in her life. I know Elena was happier then but what version of Damon would she have met that night? A Damon that would try to compel and kill her friends while they partied? Or a Damon that was so completely caught up in her that that was all he could see? Would the stars have aligned for him, the very sight of her enough to stop him in his tracks? I could believe that Elena would have had that effect on him. She had had that effect on me.

 _ **"You're gonna be ok and I'm gonna see you soon."**_

Her last sentence to him that night; I think it was more of a way for her to cope with the fact that her decision might mean that she would never see Damon again. By the time the phone call was over, Elena was a mess and then suddenly I was dodging a psychotic blonde vampire and hurtling over the side of Whickory Bridge. I'm not even sure if I remember falling into the water or if it is my brain trying to piece things together. One of the low parts to being human - you don't take a hit in a car crash particularly well.

I move myself away from the now clean tables and return to the bar area with a small load of glasses to be washed and begin doing an unnecessary tidy up of the shelves. Just an ordinary guy with my ordinary job. While I might only be _normal_ compared to some of my group of friends it just means that in my own human way I see things they don't. But then I'm just Matt and practically invisible. It's something I can smile about though because I usually have some insider knowledge, I like to see it as my own supernatural advantage. This invisibility means that people aren't as careful as they think they are when having conversations in front of their bartender.

For example I know where Ric was yesterday.

Not that most people would care about this information but I'm sure Elena would. She's been sitting at a table out of the way watching Ric since he came in. She may not know where he was but she does know that all this time he has known where Damon is. I've known Elena since we were kids so I know from the way she is looking at Ric now that he better be prepared to face the music on hiding that piece of information. Damon had suddenly arrived out of nowhere a few days ago to help fend of an attack from this weeks fresh round of evil and nobody had to look that far to wonder who his contact was. I'm pretty sure he also has Sheriff Forbes feeding him info but when it comes time to move a body in this town, its going to be your drinking buddy that calls you back home and not the police. Ok so there wasn't technically a body this time since the Hunter Damon attempted to kill managed to disappear but blowing up part of a hospital isn't exactly legal. And yet that's not even the first explosion we've seen around here lately.

There isn't even much of a founder's council anymore since it blew up around the same time the hunter arrived. Not that I didn't agree with the vendetta he had, I just wasn't on board with the part where people I know were going to die. People I care about. But I didn't want him dead either it would be too much to hope that Klaus hasn't caught up with him already. Its important to keep some kind of balance between these two worlds but it's not getting easier. It doesn't help that the previously mentioned psychotic blonde vampire that put my truck off the road might also be into me… _and she is pretty hot_.

I head over to Elena and give her a quick "Hey", and she replies back but doesn't stop with me long. She uses the moment as a final push to get her off her seat and over to Ric. I leave them to it as Caroline walks in, smile on her face and a fresh breath of air to my day. She begins talking immediately.

"Hey Matt! Looks like a quiet day. Has Elena been in?"

She looks around, "I was hoping to meet her here, she's been a bit spacey lately and we all know why that's started." she rolls her eyes, "When somebody decides to leave town they should probably stay gone instead of bringing all their crazy stupid plans and messy hair back with them. It just gets in the way of people actually living their lives."

She breathes and I smile widely at her. "Hello to you too Caroline and yeah, Elena's at the bar… talking to Ric."

She glances behind me, a look of curious suspicion coming over her face. Her head tilts slightly and she tries to cover the move by putting her hair behind her ear but I know what she's doing.  
"Caroline, sometimes conversations are private for a reason and you could end up hearing something you don't want to know."

"Oh yeah like what? Like one of my best friends is harbouring feelings for a serial killer? Like the fact that I've been right all this time? You and Bonnie didn't believe me when I said that Ric knows where _**he**_ is and Elena is over there right now trying to get that information!" She huffs the words out and her face is one of frustration and concern. She wants to fix, or at least prevent something from being broken but it's too late for that. Elena is in love with Damon Salvatore. I know it, Caroline knows it, everybody knows it.

So we watch for a moment as Ric gives Elena a piece of paper that he scrawled something on. and they wrap up their conversation and there's no stopping Caroline from listening now.

"Ric just told her that Damon probably won't answer her call. _Typical_."

Caroline is complicated when it comes to her feelings, particularly for her friends. She can be concerned that her friend loves somebody who isn't good for her and at the same time be annoyed when that same somebody won't even answer her friend's call. You can't fault her for loyalty though. As I'm pondering her logic she passes me and heads for Elena. I know the conversation that follows is full of words of warning and advice that Elena will listen to and not follow. But I also know that as much as Caroline hates it she won't try and steal the number from her, even though she could. That's a huge step for her.

Caroline's face has an agitated look on it and I can tell I was right about Elena going her own way on this as she's already turning back towards me and giving me a "Bye Matt" before leaving the Grill. Caroline is following after her, clearly they had plans to be elsewhere, and as she passes she mutters loudly "I wish people would just see that I'm right instead of making choices that waste time and end in disaster."

The door closes behind them and I'm left to my regular Joes including Ric who has been watching all this. He just raises his eyebrows at me and turns around to finish his drink.

I certainly hope that Caroline can't predict the future, this town has had enough disaster. But we're back at a very familiar juncture.

It's Elena's choice again.

* * *

Hope you enjoyed the flashbacks to season 3!

If you're curious about when this chapter would have happened in season 4 then I would place it roughly after episode 5. Mostly because this chapter and the next happen on the same day and the brief bits of info they mention would place it about there in the season.


	4. Jeremy

AUTHOR NOTE:  
The hunter still came to town and Jeremy shows he has potential…

* * *

\- CHAPTER 4 -

* * *

 **Continued from our morning with Matt….**

 **JEREMY POV**

"Hey Jeremy, what do you want for dinner tonight? We have the last tin of spaghetti hoops or the takeaway menu in the kitchen."

She's back after a day with Caroline and scavenging for food. She was obviously too distracted earlier to get any for tonight, whatever happened.

"You know you keep this up you'll almost be as good a cook as Jenna" We both smile as I walk over to the TV and switch it on. Aunt Jenna trying to cook a family night meal was always entertaining. I think the only times we didn't end up ordering in were the nights Damon randomly joined us.

Yeah… moving on.

"I suppose it could be worse, you could be offering to make some sucky Gilbert chilli." I fire back at her.

There's a pause before she bobs her head and forces a smile, "Why don't I save that torture for the founders parties." She's trying to sell me on an up-beat attitude but something is throwing it off.

"You OK? Caroline didn't force you into more decoration duty for the Miss Mystic Pageant did she?"

She shakes herself and smiles again "No. She tried though, but I think I made her see reason. When you have centre-pieces already on the tables you don't need tea lights as well, especially when it's during the day. Plus I just think she's a little on edge with everything between her and Tyler, and then there's Klaus hovering around."

It's a reasonable excuse for her mood so I let it slide.

She moves to head up the stairs. "Hey Jer, do you mind waiting a little while for food? I might take a shower first and then I'll ring… I'll ring for a take out or something."

"Yeah that's fine, I've got races I need to win and a high score that's bugging the life out of me." Again she fake smiles "Great, I won't take long." and she's away, heading up the stairs and out of sight.

I take a deep breath and let it out slowly. The high score was Damon's but at least she never asked. I seem to be tripping around his name a lot lately but I figure I'm passing it of pretty well. I'm not joking about wanting to beat his high score though. Vampire reflexes kinda gave him an unfair advantage and now that I have a new found hunter instinct I was hoping to put it to good use. While I may be willing to abuse this new power for my own gaming satisfaction, the thought of what being a hunter actually means is not something I want to think about for too long. I've been having weird dreams lately and a lot of them focus on staking Stefan in the heart. It's not exactly showing brotherly love when you dream about killing your sister's boyfriend. At least he hasn't been spending the night at our house; after one of the dreams I actually woke up with a perfectly carved hunters stake in my hand. Apparently I made it in my sleep! It seems fair to say that I also dream about killing Damon, but those dreams often just end with me ripping out his heart as he stands there and asks me if that's the best I can do! Sometimes he just takes his heart out of my hand sticks it back in his chest and says " _Don't be a dick Jer._ " What does it take to even faze this guy? Well at least he's not here right now so I don't have to worry about my impending death when I _try_ to kill him. Pretty sure my family ring won't bring me back this time now that I'm technically supernatural.

This strange new found aggression towards vampires is probably the reason why I feel so determined to beat his high score which has been sitting on the game for a over a year now. Funny how its never bothered me that much before, but the intense need to somehow beat a vampire on any level is a very appealing thought to me right now. I figure gaming is the safest outlet.

I'm hoping that beating his racing time keeps me pretty mellow. If I can keep calm maybe I won't trigger any instincts around people I don't want to hurt. I don't want anybody caught in the crossfire either, especially not my sister. I think Damon would _actually_ kill me then. I begin to laugh at that, _he could try…_ What the heck is wrong with me?

I wish I could shake this feeling off but it's like I can sense them now. Everywhere I go I get itchy when I know a vampire is near by. Stefan usually picks up Elena from here and I really wish he wouldn't. I've been trying to keep myself out of the way when he or Caroline are over.

I wouldn't even have this stupid mark if one of Klaus's hybrids hadn't killed the hunter. I don't know exactly what happened to the guy that carried out the task. One day he was hovering outside the house keeping tabs on Elena like she's Klaus's personal blood vending machine and the next day he's lost it. As in crazy. I was heading out, making my way to the grill and next thing I know the guy is on me, right in my face and raving about putting him out of his misery and then talking to somebody who wasn't even there. I was struggling with him as he pushed me to the ground, until out of nowhere there's Klaus Michelson standing over us as if the whole thing was planned. He just throws me a stake to finish the guy off and when that only slows him down, Klaus hands me an axe. When a dead hybrid makes Klaus smile it's never a good sign. The mark appeared on my hand shortly after.

I can't think why Klaus would want me to be a hunter but Damon said he would try to figure it out.

Yeah I said it. Damon, the vampire I now dream about killing is trying to help me figure out this mark. Elena knows nothing. Not about the mark and certainly not about me being in contact with Damon. To be honest I'm not sure I would have told anybody about what happened to me if Damon hadn't been at our house the first night the mark appeared. I couldn't sleep and had gotten up to walk about the house when I saw a shape move in the doorway of Elena's room. Hunter instinct kinda kicked into gear and I went for him and thankfully Damon was sober enough to realise that something wasn't right. When I finally calmed down I spilled my guts about the mark, the hunter and Klaus. Elena stayed asleep.

Not that its not a little freaky to discover Damon hanging around my sister's bedroom at night, but at least he only seemed to be watching from the hall. I don't even know where he got into the house. Does he have a key for the door? Are we leaving windows open? This feels like something I should have looked into before now, vampires only need one invite and then they're in whenever they want. Maybe I should set up traps…

I'm already heading to the stairs where Ric left a small stash of weapons when I manage to shake myself out of yet another hunter trance. After all the only vampires invited into this house are currently all friends of ours. That thought doesn't stop the itchy feeling I get though. I'm on edge now so I head back to the sofa and the game I paused and _**he**_ is standing in the kitchen.

"Still getting that twitchy feeling Jer?"

I can't believe this.

"Its getting stronger. What are you doing here? Elena is upstairs you know."

Of course he knows.

He smirks and starts unpacking two bags of hot food that he's set on the table and I look at him questioningly. "What? It's family night and there's no food here. Do you people actively set out to starve yourselves?"

I role my eyes at him, "How is this going to keep Elena safe if you're sneaking up on me? You keep setting me off!" I'm only whispering loudly but I look at the stairs anyway in case the sound has travelled.

Damon looks at me like I'm an idiot and ignores my decision to whisper.  
"I just want to see if your inner emo decides to change its tone and go full on Buffy on me."

"Buffy was a girl."

"I know." He drags out a grin and grabs plates out of the dishwasher before kicking the door closed again with his foot. I'm getting frustrated again and I think he can tell, so as he comes back to the kitchen island he gets straight to business.

"I've got some news. Its not exactly _great_ news but maybe its enough to bring our dirty little secret into the light."

I stare at him waiting.

"It seems Klaus has been holding out on some history he has with our deceased hunter friend. Or to be more specific with hunters in general. Sources say he knew the first hunters and you are now a proud member of a freakishly old sect of vampire slayers. And apparently it takes 5 men in every generation as opposed to Buffy's one so technically you're only 1/5th of a vampire slayer."

"Who are your sources?"

He acts like my question is boring and expected but answers anyway. "Crazy blonde sources who easily fall for my devastating charm and good looks." He squints at me thinking, "I'll narrow that down further - it's wasn't Caroline."

Obviously Damon feels this big reveal of hunter lore in relation to the Originals can't be covered up for much longer. But I know he's holding something back from me and biding his time as I process what he has said. I watch as Damon grabs knives and forks out of the drawer and sets them out for two people; clearly he isn't staying for dinner.

"Look Jeremy, we may have to get you into some training with Alaric. That mark you see on your hand is only the start. According to you the last hunter had more detail in his and according to… 'my source', the first hunter tattoos took up a lot of chest space. You have a long way to go for your full body artwork… and I think you'll have to kill a lot of vampires to do it."

"And you think I should?"

"Well obviously not _all_ vampires but lets not rule out some local problems. Ric should be safe enough from you providing you don't want to kill your sister - which, lets be clear, is _not_ an option cause then I would have to kill _you_ and no doubt somebody would _attempt_ to kill me and then I'd have to kill them… its a whole killing spree that could be avoided."

He's attempting to lighten the threat that I pose with his own brand of dark humour but I don't like even the idea that I might be the reason something happened to Elena.

"At least I could trust you to keep even me from doing something that stupid, right?"

His eyes waver slightly because he knows exactly what I'm getting at, but eventually a suspiciously soft version of Damon's usual glare lands directly on me.

"Well let's hope you're not that big an idiot."

I smile at him and his face gets that crumpled look to it that appears when he's annoyed or has a feeling of any kind for that matter. He brushes out of this weirdly caring moment that has developed by running through other problem scenarios and both of us take advantage of the opportunity to move on.

"Besides _me_ , the only other vamps we don't want you pissing off are those garden variety Originals that seem to turn up everywhere. As long as you don't get hold of the white oak stake I think we're good. But no worries there, I have that in a very safe place." He smiles enigmatically.

As he comes around the kitchen island to stand in front of me his face has lost any of it's usual smart ass character. "Look, nobody else can see the tattoo except you and other hunters, so as long as we keep our hunting party quiet we could have a chance of finding out its secret before Klaus does."

"Yeah well I think it's a little late to be hoping that Klaus won't know what we're up to and he isn't the only one we're keeping things from."

"Why? _Is the government unto us?_ " He quips, trying to bluff his way out.

"Elena will know that you've been hiding from her'

"I have not been hiding from her. I've been staying away like I promised I would." His eyes flare slightly and I smile.

"Oh really? So I didn't see you standing in the hallway a few nights ago and almost kill you." he looks at me like I'm crazy.

"Please, if you had _almost_ killed me then _you_ would certainly be dead."

I consider that my dismissal and shift around him to see what food he brought. Guess he still knows our order, he even got me something I like. I check back behind me and find him looking up at the ceiling and fidgeting with the pockets of his leather jacket. He is so whipped by my sister that he can't decide if he wants to leave before she knows he was here or if he should stay just so he can catch a glimpse of her. He sees me watching him and shrugs it off giving me a warning look and heading toward the door. His step gets interrupted when his phone rings and the sound of " _I'm a bitch, I'm a lover, I'm a child, I'm a mother..._ " sings out loudly. He reaches to shut it off and a strange look crosses his face when he checks the caller I.D. before his eyes are drawn upwards again to the ceiling. His neck is still craned upwards with a sappy smile creeping unto his face when I see his eyes fall back to me and realising what he must look like he makes another move to leave.

I actually laugh a little at him "Someone trying to reach you?"

He looks at me grumpily but gets cut off from saying anything by the repeated noise of ' _I'm a bitch, I'm a-'_. Again the phone is cut off and he bites his lip as I watch him slip it to silent.

His sarcasm rears its ugly head to respond to me "Listen Buffy, just concentrate on your cheerleading for now and we'll talk about proper stake maintenance at another time."

"Say what you like, but Buffy kicked ass."

I notice his phone flash again in his hand and see what I suspected would be there, Elena's name. This time he lets it ring on silently and places it in his back pocket. He's more distracted when he looks up again and instead of a smart remark at my expense he simply says, "Put that in the microwave for her, she'll be down soon." and then he's out the door.

I notice he looks a little downcast as he walks towards his car but before he gets there he slides the phone out of his pocket and puts it to his ear. My guess? He's listening to whatever message she left him. I find it amazing that someone like Damon can be completely sucker-punched by my sister. It's amusing really and I would get in his face more about it if I didn't think I would be pushing it. Plus he has been helping me and no matter what he says it's a risk for him to be around me.

I hear Elena move upstairs and I put her food in the microwave like Damon asked. It pings just as she reaches the bottom of the stairs and her face is one of confusion.

"You already ordered?"

"Uhh, yeah. I figured You wouldn't be too long and I was getting hungry, I was just heating yours up."

"Great, I'm starving." I hand her the plate and she grabs a fork and immediately dives in. This is the most I've seen her eat in days. Whatever that message was that she left for Damon it clearly got some things of her chest. I can't resist asking her "Hey you didn't phone anybody did you?" She stops eating to look at me. "I mean you didn't already place an order did you? I don't want another delivery arriving tonight - although cold pizza always tastes good for breakfast."

"No I didn't get around to it."

If I hadn't already seen her missed call in action I would have bought her calm demeanour, she didn't even blink. Something is going on.

"Hey if you've finished gaming for the night, want to watch a movie?" Her fork goes back to work on her meal.

"Yeah, sure. It's family night after all. What do you have in mind?"

"Oh I don't know, maybe 'Gone with the wind'? I mean if Damon is going to be sneaking into the house we have to consider something he might want to watch."

Ah, crap.

She saunters into the living room and flops into the chair continuing to eat, just waiting for me to join her with whatever explanation I am about to give. I look around the kitchen trying to figure out what's tipped her off but she puts me out of my misery.

"Jer, my room is directly above here - you think I can't make out the lyrics to the chorus of B.i.t.c.h?"

"Uh, That was my phone." I lie badly.

"Really. Who is this lucky person stored on your phone with that unique ring tone?"

This is getting awkward. I mean I could try another dumb answer but her face says that I shouldn't. She's not done with me.

"You know Jer maybe I'm getting a memory mix up or something. Maybe it was _your_ phone that I stole 3 months ago and changed my caller ringtone on to B.i.t.c.h. Of course the reason I would have done that would have had to have been because it was _you_ that changed yours on _my_ phone first to ' _Whatta Man'_ by Salt N Peppa and then rang me during history class to amuse Alaric. Did you do that? 'Cause I could have sworn that was Damon."

"You changed your callers ringtone to B.i.t.c.h. on Damon's phone? Why would you even choose that song?"

"Honestly? I just wanted a song with the most abrupt chorus I could get and this one really grabs peoples attention. Especially when you leave it on loud and ring Damon when you know he's gone to sneak blood from the hospital… or when he went to a founders meeting…."

"And he still has that as your ringtone?"

She lets a kind of distracted look fall on her face, "Well, he came around to thinking it was funny… He started answering my phone calls by singing the rest of the chorus back to me…"

I chuckle at the idea of Damon singing and she gets a little embarrassed at having revealed something that was between her and Damon; this is unfortunate for me as that puts her right back to where we left off.

"I think we're getting away from the real point here Jer."

Her face had been almost pleasantly reminiscent right up until the last bit where her eyes developed a rather pointed glare in my direction. There's a good chance I am in over my head and the one who should be here to deal with my sister's wrath is typically miles away by now. Thank you so much for this Damon, as if I wasn't already finding it a struggle not to kill you.

She settles me with the same steely gaze mum used to get when she found pot in my room.

"Mind telling me what I'm missing?"

* * *

So, before you go and look it up to appease your imagination, this is maybe what you're looking for…

If Elena rings Damon he would hear the first few lines from the chorus of B.i.t.c.h before he would answer…

 _I'm a bitch, I'm a lover I'm a child, I'm a mother…_

The bit that Damon would be singing back to Elena (giving it stacks no doubt) when he answers would be…

 _ **I'm a sinner, I'm a saint I do not feel ashamed I'm your hell, I'm your dream I'm nothing in between You know you wouldn't want it any other way.**_

And of course if you've watched 6x02 of TVD you will remember the words of salt N Peppa's Whatta Man

 _What a man, what a man, what a man,_  
 _What a mighty good man Gotta say it again now…_

I'm gonna suggest that we all take a little time out from our day to type 'Damon Pancakes' into youtube just to enjoy that moment again.


	5. Bonnie

AUTHOR NOTE:  
This chapter takes places the evening after Elena and Jeremy's family night.

* * *

 **\- CHAPTER 5 -**

* * *

 **BONNIE POV**

"So Damon is not as gone as we thought? I can't believe Jeremy never told me any of this."

"I'm sure he'll give you the full story Bonnie. I took up most of our family night grilling him on everything he and Damon have been hiding."

"And it doesn't bother you that Damon has been lurking in the shadows this whole time?"

"Not the whole time, just since he came back a week ago. At least as far as Jeremy knows."

I look at her because she hasn't really answered my question. She rubs her arm, "I guess I'm Ok with it." My eyes widen slightly searching her face and she looks awkward, "I don't know Bonnie, I don't know how I feel about him being back." She looks around her room at anything that isn't my slightly arched eyebrow. We've been seated opposite each other on the bed for about 20mins and this is as far as we've got. She's distracted.

I try to keep things light, it was meant to be a fun night for us to just catch up after all. I change the tone of my voice to a more playful one when I start in again. "I think you do know, but for some reason you think I don't want to hear it." All I get back is more distracted silence so I reach out and steal her pillow from her. " _Damon was in love with you_ , I doubt that has changed in 2 months. He comes in to help save the day and then finds he has to leave you again. You said you never seen him the whole time he was here yet Jeremy told you he was in your house the night the mark appeared, and _you guess you're ok with it?_ Ok… Ok. Do you want me to just get the pop-corn ready now we've cleared all that up?"

Finally she laughs at me and I smile back hoping she can trust me with whatever is running through her mind. I finally get to the bit that I know is bothering her "You rang him and he didn't answer and now we're here talking about it so I know you're not completely ok." She rolls her eyes but nods her head slightly as I continue. "He was a big part of your life and he just left without much of a goodbye… _And_ you're forgetting that I know about all the kisses between you two and I mean _**all**_ the kisses Elena, I think Jeremy is still emotionally scarred from Denver."

She runs her hand through her hair and lets out a quick breath of laughter. "I can't believe Jeremy told you about that. I was hoping he'd kinda blocked it out."

"I'm sure he's working on it." I laugh. "By the look on his face when he told me it must have been _quite_ a kiss… Sooooo… _Was it good?"_ She grabs her pillow back and hits me with it but she's laughing, so my evil plan has worked.

She seems to settle into her thoughts again and I can tell she's thinking something over so that she can try and find the right words to explain it to me. "That night in Denver… I was trying to see what I felt for Damon. I was the one who got us to stop at the Motel because I knew we'd be back home soon and I still hadn't figured it all out. How can you figure something like that out when you've never really let yourself look? I knew there was something that would just consume me if i tried. I can still feel it pulling at me. If I let myself look there's no going back."

She seems drained by all this and begins to pick at the edge of the pillow sitting in her lap.  
I would love to help her sort out this mess of feelings she has. If only it was as simple as telling her that Damon Salvatore is no good for her. I could make compelling arguments on all the ways that he is wrong for her. He makes terrible choices and is often an all round terrible person; he is horrific when drunk and even when he's sober is prone to unpleasant reactions, sometimes violent - depending on who you are and what mood he's in. But Elena already knows all this. Some of the terrible things he's done, he's done them to her and she hasn't forgotten them, but something in her keeps getting her to look past them. Even I on occasion have found myself looking past them…  
At times I see why it's easy for her to do this, It's not as if I hadn't seen him changing. A town that he once wanted to destroy he has now risked his life for many times over, he's even saved me along the way. Or maybe he has only ever done these things for her… He would risk everything for Elena.  
His loving her brings whatever wavering humanity he has right to the surface and as much as I could stand up and accuse him for the many awful things he has done since I've known him, I can't fault him in this one thing; he's always been there when she needed him. When it comes to Elena Gilbert, Damon is completely devoted. Resiliently loyal, fiercely protective and surprisingly dependable. When she calls, he comes. Except for now, apparently.

I lean toward her on the bed, "You know, your decision that night, choosing Stefan…? It Doesn't have to be the one you stick with the rest of your life." I can't believe I'm saying this, "I think you're just scared of how much you care about Damon.", her eyes connect with mine, "Things have changed between you two. You feel something for him, something more."

"I can't deny that ever since Damon left my feelings for him have become more… intense."

Now it's my turn to nod. Intense feelings. She doesn't deny it anymore, there is something there. If that's where we're starting then there's hope. She might be able to figure this out.

"It's like there's something connecting me to him. Like I've been hooked in since before I even met him. I can't describe it but it feels like it's always been there. No matter how much I try to move against it, it pulls me back in. I used to think it was because he was always around. Damon would always just show up, and then he'd be right there, close to me, never backing away, never backing down. But that's not all it was, there was something in me too, something that can't let him go. Now that he's gone there's just this huge space and nothing to fill it, its just there. This glimmer of a feeling inside me that I can't shake… just like Denver. He was just lying next to me. The way he looked at me… All he did was hold my hand and… I couldn't breathe, I kept feeling like I couldn't breathe, so I left. I was outside but then he was there again, saying my name… so I kissed him…. I've never felt more alive."

As the last words quietly leave her lips I let out a long breath that I didn't know I'd been holding. I study the small smile that reaches her face for a moment before she shakes it away like she's clearing her head.

"I get the feeling this was more than a peck on the lips… Was it,ah… going somewhere?"

Her eyes get a little distant and she moves her hair behind her ear, "Possibly. Maybe… Yes…" She admits. It's not hard to figure out why I'm getting the guilty vibes from her. She's not the first woman to admit that she loves both of the Salvatore brothers. She's always hated the idea that there was anything more to link her to Katherine Pierce other than their doppleganger resemblance. It would be another failed argument of mine if I tried to point out that she is nothing like Katherine simply because she loves both of them. I know for a fact that Damon and Stefan would be first in line to back me up on that. Elena's heart would always set her leagues apart from her evil twin.

I can tell that I'm about to lose her again to some serious brooding thoughts and I decide it's about time this night stops inviting in the gloom and gets a little more fun. Grabbing the pillow from her lap and standing up I declare that it's about time we found Ric's surviving stash of booze in this house because I am sure we could both use a drink. I smile at her and I can see the beginnings of a smile stretch on her face as we walk down the stairs.

"What makes you think Ric left any here?"

"Please, that guy leaves bourbon everywhere. He's almost as bad as…" She eyes me "sorry, 'He who shall not be named."

"Thank you. Now you could be right about the bourbon but are we sure we want to drink it?"

I mockingly contemplate it for a moment, "Well we could have this very special concoction of herbal witch tea?"

"I think for once I'll go with the bourbon."

"Wise choice."

We head into the kitchen and I watch her pulling glasses out from the cupboards in preparation for our great liquor hunt. I find myself wishing that for once I could make something good happen for Elena simply because I willed it to happen. I remember wanting the same thing when we entered our Sophomore year of high school. What I'd 'predicted' for Elena was that that year was gonna kick ass, that all the sad and dark times were over and she was going to be beyond happy. Yeah, sadly that was not a real premonition. The real one involved a crow… and possibly a shadowy man. Mostly crow though.  
Funnily enough in this one area of her life Elena is the one that has control over the outcome. It's her call. I can hear Damon's response to that line clear in my head - _"You know what else was her call? Everything bad ever."_ I laugh at his opinion of Elena's decisions and wonder would he still agree with that statement if he knew she was on her way to choosing him?

 **...-...**

 **...-...**

Half and hour later the music is loud and the kitchen feels like it's in motion with us as we dance around doing ridiculous moves and getting food together. Caroline will be joining us shortly, I just hope she's ok. She and Tyler have been a little at odds over the hybrids and Klaus and the female werewolf living in his house and Klaus also lack of quality time, oh and then there's Klaus. He has become impossible to uproot from Mystic Falls and even more impossible to detangle from Caroline's life. Whatever problems are between her and Tyler, I know that Klaus has his hand in it somewhere.

While I'm thankful that he managed to do something half way generous in saving Jeremy from his crazy hybrid, I know there will be a payment that he'll be looking to collect. I just hope it's nothing requiring my witchy services. Jeremy killing that hybrid might only be the start of more problems for us if that's the case. But why so serious? This is meant to be a fun night and it keeps getting derailed, even in my own head. I side-step over to Elena at the microwave and bump her gently to the side with my hip so that I can set down her second shot of bourbon. Yep we found it and yes we are feeling the warm burn of an alcoholic buzz forming on our insides. Another few of these and we'll either be dancing on the tables or passed out on the couch. It's a risk but it has to be better than the magic tea.

"Ok, popcorn is done and I seem to have my hands free", Elena lifts her glass and fires back her shot. her face makes a rather comical squirm and then she is slapping the glass back on the counter.

" _Ooookay_ that went down pretty good."

I laugh at her as she shakes her head and moves into the sitting room with the rest of the snack food we've compiled. The front door opens and Caroline storms in, dropping her bag heavily on the floor then shirking her jacket and throwing it on the couch. It lands in a heap and she groans, picking it up and fixing it on the back of the chair. I just wait it out, clearly something is bothering her and it won't take too long to come out.

"What a complete _**Jack** -ass_!"

And there it is.

With her hands on her hips and anger radiating off of her she is cutting a very threatening pose.

"Do you ever think that being supernatural just gives men another level to being complete and utter jerks? What is their personal damage that they think they can just walk into your life, threaten your friends and demand a date with you? I hope you know how highly I value our friendship Bonnie Bennet, and you too Elena Gilbert, because this is as far as my limits go."

Her face screws up in anguish and she moves restlessly over to the window.

"Tyler isn't even talking to me now."

"Okay, slow down, what's happened?"

"Apparently, Klaus has got it into his head that he can use the loss of his hybrid sire-ling as a trap to date me. He wants to go with me to the Miss Mystic Pageant because we owe him for Jeremy's life. Like we even asked him to do that!"

I raise my eyebrows, "Hey, that's my boyfriend."

"And my brother", Elena adds in as she turns off the music and hands Caroline a drink.

Caroline seems to relax momentarily, "You know what I mean. How can he get to do this? Tyler is pushing me away and that smirking **_jack-ass_** is loving it!" She gulps her drink down in one go. "Remind me again why we can't put a white oak stake in him? I mean, before that moment comes where we would all die because of our stupid sireline, we could have at least one _beautiful_ hour where Klaus didn't exist!"

She finally sits down on the chair beside her and puts her head in her hands. I look over at Elena who gestures for us both to go over and ply her with junk food, the cure for man trouble apparently.

"Urrgh! Why are we constantly plagued by sadistic vampires who want to date us?"

"A thought that makes me thankful that I seem to attract mystical hunters rather than blood-suckers." I smile teasingly.

"Hey! _I'm_ a bloodsucker! Can we adopt a more P.C. term please? Undead American maybe or something more dramatic like ' _People of the Night_ ', except of course I have a day ring. Certainly not creature of the night, I'm not an animal! Except of course I drink blood… from people. Can we get off this subject? I don't think I can think straight with this imminent crisis ahead of me."

"Consider the subject dead, practically an eternal white-oak-staked kinda dead."

"Very funny Bonnie…" But I don't think Caroline is really listening to me. Her eyes get a hazy look over them as she ponders something over. "Come to think of it, where is the white-Oak stake these days?"

It was a good question, something like that should definitely not be in the wrong hands. We might not use it against Klaus but that doesn't mean that somebody else wouldn't. I've got friends that would end up as unwitting victims if that happened. Maybe I could do a locator spell and try t—-

"I have it."

We both turn and stare at Elena who is sipping at another glass of bourbon.

"How do you have it? When did you even get it?"

Two very good questions Caroline.

"I kinda got it from Damon… I found it. Well he left it for me in a way… I think."

"Well that's vague enough, of course that explains everything except for how and when." Caroline is doing a good job running the interrogation so I just sit back and watch this unfold.

"It was after he left. I went by the house to see Stefan but he wasn't home and I just found myself walking around… and then I was in Damon's room…"

"And he just left it sitting around? No _stick pile_ to throw it into, no ridiculous bowl of _soap_ to hide it in?!"

"It was hidden ok? I was looking around, but he hadn't left much of anything behind and I opened a drawer and there it was."

"All you had to do was _open a drawer?!_ Why do we let him take care of these important things when he clearly has no idea what security means! Clearly he's never had to hide a boyfriend in his room from his mother or even a diary for that matter! Does he not have any basic understanding of keeping things away from prying eyes? False bottomed drawers, a loose floor panel - hell even a moving bookcase - that house is bound to have one of those!"

She makes a weird exasperated screech and catches my eye which must have denoted something of 'calm down and lets get though this' because she takes a deep breath, changes her tone and tries to blink away in her mind the stupidity of Damon Salvatore. I just take another hit of the bourbon in my glass.

Caroline focuses on Elena again, "And you think he left it for _you?_ "

Elena's mouth opens and closes uncertainly before at last she picks her words, "There was a note." She takes gulp of bourbon and does a poor job of concealing the fact that a blush had slightly crept over her face.

This just gets better, I have to know, "What did it say?"

"Look it was nothing, I have the stake, it's safe, nobody else knows I have it. Not even Stefan."

I don't think mine and Caroline's eyebrows could reach any higher than they are right now and we share a look that seems more dramatic to me than it really is as I think the alcohol is really kicking in. Caroline on the other hand is not to be distracted so she charges right ahead.

"Well I for one am curious to know what Damon Salvatore would put pen to paper for that didn't also include bathroom wall art of some kind and a 900 number." I erupt into giggles and Elena turns surprised eyes on me at my temporary insanity, restraining a tight lipped smile of her own while I attempt to calm myself.

"Look I know you two have issues with him but it's really nothing to worry about."

"Did you keep it? The note?" Elena nods at me.

"Everything is upstairs."

"Upstairs…." Caroline is gone before I can react. Vampire powers definitely give her an advantage. But Elena almost seems superhuman in her speed too as she leaves the room - but again maybe thats my bourbon vision talking… or seeing… whatever. I stand up to follow and wobble slightly. Whoah Bonnie Bennet, note to self, you have a _low_ threshold for Bourbon.

I clamber after them up the stairs only to find Caroline making an uncharacteristically large mess of Elena's room and currently searching the window seat.

"Found it! One white oak stake and one slightly crumpled note that wouldn't be crumpled if you hadn't tried to get it away from me Elena."

Caroline is a force of nature and Elena at last seems resigned to the fact that everything is out of her control. Caroline unfolds the piece of paper.

"Well this is short…

 ** _'Hey Elena,  
Miss me?  
I figure this is safer with you.  
Something to remember me by. ;).  
Damon.'_**

"Something to remember me by? Why would a white oak stake help you remember him? I wouldn't need a stake to remember how many times I've wanted to kill that smug bas-

"Caroline!" I interrupt her tirade on Elena's behalf.

"What? Ok fine I'll drop it. But what is this winky face? I don't get it."

Elena has that slight red tinge to her skin again - "He left the stake beside a pair of his boxers, Ok? The drawer I opened must have been his underwear drawer and that's all he'd left sitting in there. Happy now?"

"Were they black? _I bet they were black._ " I drunk whisper as Elena struggles to form words, "I'll take that as a yes." I take a celebratory sip of my bourbon.

Caroline's face is the picture of disgust as she repeats the note to herself… _"Something to remember me by. Winky face ;)_ … Oh my g - were they in there too?!" She points to the window seat, "Did I touch them? Please say I didn't touch them!"

"Noooo I left them where they were Caroline. He was just being his usual Damon self when he could have just told me where the stake was before he left. Or at least told Stefan."

It is pretty strange "Yeah… but how did he know you'd go snooping through his room… In his underwear drawer?" I ask.

Caroline answers, "Are you kidding me? It's Damon, the guy thinks every woman wants into his pants."

This outburst from Caroline makes something click in my head and I can't help but burst out laughing because the whole thing is just too funny. I can feel Caroline and Elena staring at me like I've lost my mind.

"Something you want to share with the room Bonnie?"

"I think maybe it was a bad call on the bourbon." Elena mutters, unsure of what is happening.

I catch my breath and manage to bring my laughing down to a giggle but it's still there just below the surface and I'm a little breathless in my speech when I finally get out, "Don't you see Elena? He left you _wood…_ in his boxers."

I go back to laughing and lean against the door for support as Elena actually purses her lips to try and reign in a laugh of her own and Caroline's face contorts in disbelief.

"You can't be serious. Is that what the winky face is all about? Some stupid kinky reference to how he's hard for Elena? Well he certainly thinks a lot of himself. A mystical piece of wood that can't be destroyed, and can last forever… You know the more I think about this the more disgusted I get." She turns to me "and the fact that you got a Damon joke? We should be worried about your state of mind."

Caroline stalks over to Elena and hands her the note back using the tips of her fingers like she might catch something of it and announces as she leaves us both that she's going to wash her hands or maybe even shower.

Elena rolls her eyes but we laugh as we start to make our way out of the room. I stop when I notice something stuffed behind a teddy bear in the corner. I reach past the bear and pull out a pair of black boxers. I hold them out in front of her questioningly, biting the inside of my cheek. Elena caves, "Stefan came back home that day and I shoved them into my bag." She tries to play it off but knows how it looks "Well I can hardly go and take them back now. I got them out of Caroline's reach while she was tearing my wardrobe apart."

She takes in the teasing judgement in my eyes and rolls her own "Don't tell Caroline" she directs at me pointedly.

"Why would I do that, when I have all this _**black-**_ **mail** material?" I loop the top of the boxers around the tip of my finger and twirl them overhead laughing. Elena quickly makes a grab for them and shoves them into the top drawer on her desk before pushing me out the door.

I laugh at her, "Yeah, you're probably right. You should keep them, he may need them again." She squints her eyes at me but can't hide the smile trying to force it's way on there. I let her push me out the door.

To be honest it's good to see her happy, and if Damon is the one to do that for her in any small way then I'm not completely unconvinced that there might be something good in him for her.

* * *

 **Hope you enjoyed the chapter and had a giggle or two.**

 **You've heard it mentioned a couple of times in the story already but soon it will be here - The Miss Mystic Falls Pageant will be up soon…**


	6. Caroline Part1

AUTHOR NOTE:  
Its the Miss Mystic Pageant and we're gonna be here for a few chapters in Caroline's POV. There will be another update later today seeing as this chapter is a little on the short side.

* * *

 **\- CHAPTER 6 -**

* * *

 **CAROLINE POV 1**

 **(Miss Mystic Falls Pageant)**

"You have got to be _kidding me_."

This is what happens when instead of checking to see if the tables had been set the way I wanted I instead decided to be a gracious leader and welcome the potentials for Miss Mystic Falls. If I'd been out the back I could have spent more of my day in blissful ignorance. But no. I chose to be out front. Where the girls are, where the other arriving helpers are and now currently where Stefan is. And Stefan is not bringing good news. This is the opposite of what I want to hear.

"Nope, not kidding. Its seems my brother is on a fact finding mission with a guest that's attending the pageant tomorrow, A Professor Shane from Whitmore College."

I can't believe that Stefan is being so relaxed about all this. With Damon comes eminent disaster, and that might be just my general feeling when I am around him but I'm not exactly wrong.  
I watch Stefan for a moment as he searches the growing crowd of helpers, eventually he finds her. Elena is talking with April Evans, a hopeful candidate to take my crown as Miss Mystic Falls.

"Does Elena know yet?"

"I'm not sure. It's been hard to talk to her lately, she's got other things on her mind… Worried about Jeremy I expect."

I study him for a moment and see the more-broody-than-usual look on his face.

"Stefan, has something happened between you and Elena?"

A small but sad smile appears on his face. "No Caroline, nothings happened…"

I strongly disagree but…Okaaay. Before I can weigh in on that blatant lie he shifts to move away.

"Look Caroline I should… " he gestures in Elena's direction and moves off and I let him escape. As he arrives at Elena's side I watch them both together. There is definitely something wrong. They both seem polite to each other, small smiles in place, but no touching, no kiss hello, no kiss just because. I at last see Stefan reach over and take Elena's arm, threading it through his as he escorts her over to the house. That would have been a lovely gesture had their faces not grown serious and I can only guess Stefan is about to tell her the utter bomb shell he just dropped on me.

Damon Salvatore back in Mystic Falls, a _gain_! Why does he have to come tomorrow? Pick another day when I haven't just worked my butt off making everything perfect!

I turn around and am reminded that there was one other thing about this upcoming event that is set to drive me insane.

There stands Klaus Michelson… My date.

 *****NEXT DAY*****

Well this day could be going worse. I mean it's only taken me half an hour to convince April Evans to wear the blue dress and not the red one, to impress the judges. Everything is looking exactly how I planned it would, once the flowers were actually put in the right place and then there's the bonus fact that I am looking _hot_. Maybe not elegant ball gown hot but still a gracefully, tasteful kind of hotness. I am the host after all so I had to put in some effort, its what would be expected from last years winner. Plus I had to show Klaus that I did not need him to buy me a dress, even though I looked ridiculously princess-like in that blue gown he got me before… Yes… But this has nothing to do with Klaus, I look hot because I want to look hot, I am Caroline Forbes and… oh for crying out loud!

"Could someone please remember to lift the empty glasses from the tables?" I grab a passing waiter and shove 2 empties into his hands, "and for goodness sake, smile people! Its a party, we have guests."

We all have to do things we don't want to do and that includes me, so if I have to go through this day smiling and pretending like I'm completely fine with everything then the least everybody else can do is maintain a pleasant atmosphere.

I know I'm storming through the place, spurred on by this disruption so I give myself a moment to just take a breath before the crisis that this day could become damages my very thin level of calm.

There are just too many things that can go wrong.

We've already got the typical stress that a pageant involves, then add to that Elena's brother the hunter acting as April's escort, Alaric will be propping up the bar when he gets here because he hates these things and is only here to keep up appearances with the council who don't now he's a vampire, then there's this creepy professor that's somehow wormed his way unto the judges panel and of course there is freaking Damon Salvatore. On top of all this I can't forget my date who has just arrived. Perfectly on time. Like he could do anything _more annoying_ right now!

"Hello Love."

Yes, apparently he can be more annoying. He can show up on time and fill out a suit. Urrggh I hate him!

"Hello Klaus, I see you made it"

"Well I wouldn't give up the chance to escort the ravishing Caroline Forbes to this marvellously organised event."

He smiles and I hate him just that little bit more because he complimented me and I liked it. Damm it I hate myself. He holds out his arm expectantly and as a few passers by say hello and then eye us suspiciously I decide I'd better take it. I am the host of this event after all, so I pull myself up and prepare to take this as a challenge but damm it if he doesn't seem to get a kick out of that too and I watch him hide another smirk as he holds my hand almost fondly on his arm and leads me out to the main dining area on the lawn.

I had just forgotten the other insanely difficult thing about this day until it walked right across our path. Tyler is here. He's not pleased about the date, no surprise there, and to top it of he's brought that werewolf chick Hayley. Klaus does an excellent job of directing us somewhere else and I'm sure my hurt look was seen by Tyler, but he still doesn't seem to understand that Klaus didn't give me much of a choice with this date.

At last I see Elena and Stefan arrive and am glad that back-up is here, until I see Damon's blue Camaro sitting empty. Apparently he's already here and making the rounds - you'd think I would have felt a change in the atmosphere, maybe something like a little dark cloud would have appeared.

Klaus makes a small snort beside me and I turn to ask him what his problem is when I see he is watching Elena and Stefan. My Favourite couple seem to be at odds with each other. Elena walks with her hands wrapped around her arms and Stefan follows with his in his pockets, again with the no touching thing. Klaus seems amused and I can only guess he listened into something as they were getting out of the car.

"This day should be rather entertaining I feel. And to think you wanted to go to the cinema."

"You know right this second I cherish the thought of being able to keep you at least 3 seats away from me as I make you sit through whatever cheesy romance I would have picked, so I warn you right now Klaus, do not to mess with my friends."

"Wouldn't dream of it love, and besides, I don't need to. Those two will come apart all by themselves."

I pull my arm out from his and walk off leaving him near the champagne flutes.

"I'll just wait here then shall I?" I hear him give a small chuckle and my steps become heavier as I stomp my way, gracefully, up the steps and back into the house following the way Elena and Stefan went.

I would never admit to Klaus that I think he might be right, but I also believe that Elena and Stefan are perfect for each other so the only thing that could be to blame for their less than warm entrance is the person standing at the bottom of the stairs right now. Standing in fact, in one of the places I most certainly don't want him to be.

* * *

 **More to come soon...**


	7. Caroline Part2

**Continued from where we left off...**

* * *

 **\- CHAPTER 7 -**

* * *

 **CAROLINE POV 2 (CONTINUED)**

 **(Miss Mystic Falls Pageant)**

There he is, my least favourite Salvatore in all his bad brother glory. I always knew there was something good about Stefan but damm me if I wasn't a complete fool the night I met Damon Salvatore. But of course here he is filling out a crisp Italian suit beautifully, which is just typical because although he looks as good as he does he is the most selfish jack-ass I have ever met and he can't even keep his own promises.

When you promise to leave town you should stay away. How hard is it that? You just don't show up!

I mean look at me right now, I know how to stay in the place I am meant to be. I'm _here_ and I am standing greeting people. I could be over _there_ and strangling him with his perfectly neat neck tie but I'm still standing _here_. It's that simple, I just don't go over there to where he is. Why can't he do that with Elena - Just don't go there. I scream a little on the inside as I desperately want to find Stefan and Elena. I get caught up with some guests as I try to intercept Damon's conversation with who I hope will be the next Miss Mystic Falls.

Oh for goodness sake what is he saying to April that has her heading back upstairs? I just got her into that blue dress, if he has said one word to her against it I will tear him a new one! But I won't go over there because unlike him I can stay right where I'm meant to be, standing here, greeting people.

"Hello Mr and Mrs Fell…Hey there, Mrs green, thank you, yes it took a lot of work."

And so it goes on for another ten minutes before I see the first thread of my day begin to unravel.  
What in the world?! April has on the red dress! I eye Damon, who isn't even aware of me, I am going to kill him! Forget greeting people I'm going over there!

"Whoah there, where are you going so fast? A good host should never neglect their guests." Urrgh Klaus. He tries to offer me Champagne but I refuse so he simply takes a sip of his own and holds both glasses, completely at ease. It pisses me off.

"Klaus you are not a guest, you are a date. A date I was forced to take to an event which I planned _meticulously_ and which I am now watching unravel since Damon Salvatore stepped foot back in this town. Now, if you don't mind I have some friends to find. You're my date why don't you entertain people."

I twirl on my feet leaving him actually a little bit speechless and probably staring at my ass. Like I said, I look hot today.

Alaric passes me giving a quick greeting and then indicating that he's making his way outside, drink in hand and probably running right into…

"Klaus."

"Mister Saltzman. How is the vampire life treating you? Killed any of your students yet?"

Alaric's face turns stone like. "I'm managing, and no."

"Before you go, I've got a proposition you might like to hear…"

I do not have time to hear what that proposition might be and Alaric is more than capable of turning Klaus down by himself so for the love of all that is holy, will someone please tell me where Elena is?!

I stride forward again further down a corridor in this huge house and at last, jackpot I see them. Elena and Stefan and their apparently very awkward conversation which I am about to insert myself into.

"I'll leave with Jeremy after this is over."

She looks strange. It's like her eyes are apologising but her stance I'd recognise anywhere. It's her 'I've made a decision', it's 'I won't change my mind', it's completely stubborn and I have _no idea what it's for._

Stefan nods at her and steps away as I approach, not really looking me in the eye and Elena moves in the opposite direction. Oh no you don't Gilbert, I have been looking for you everywhere.

I catch up with Elena just as she enters one of the side rooms that was being used as a make-up and staging area for some of the girls. The hopeful Miss Mystics have all already left and are probably out mingling where I should be. Even so, Elena is not on her lonesome when I arrive at the door.

Jeremy Has been sitting in the dimly lit room all by himself, cos that's not at all creepy, and has been occupying his time with a roughly cut hunters stake in his hand. Yep there's blood, I smell blood. And I'm not the only one concerned by this teen disfunction, Elena definitely sounds worried.

"Where have you been? What are you doing with that?"

Jeremy finally looks up and when he sees me there he stands quickly, Elena stops him with her hand, gently getting in his path.

"Put it down."

He seems to come to himself a bit but I can't really say I'm comforted much when he speaks.

"That hunter Conner was right. All I can think about is killing vampires."

Ooh great, Elena's little brother wants to kill me, consider my day complete with chaos.

"You're nothing like Conner." That's it Elena, talk him down.

"I want to believe that." He looks over at me, "and I know I don't want to hurt you Caroline, but… everything inside me is telling me to drive this stake through your heart." I have to admit I'm a little nervous with the look on his face.

"Why would you say that? It's me Jeremy." "And you're a vampire."

"Yeah but I would never hurt you."

I come further into the room and stand beside Elena. She tries to calm Jeremy and moves to grab his hand. When she lifts it the smell of blood grows stronger and I see the cut in his palm. I can't help myself, I feel it charging through me and I know that the signs are showing on my face. As controlled as I am, every now and then the blood lust can still get the better of me - _why now?!_

Jeremy grips the stake tighter in his hand growling, "No…"

A lot of things happen at once. Stefan walks back into the room and I turn to get away from Jeremy. That was my mistake. He rushes forward and already has a stake embedded in my neck from a hidden wrist weapon before I can make another move and Stefan is suddenly in front of me throwing Jeremy backwards hard, breaking a chair in the process before Jeremy falls to the ground and lies very still, Elena already trying to wake him up.

OK wow. What did Stefan just do?

"Jer… hey Jer, wake up. Wake up Jer."

I feel myself falling to the ground, I can't speak, I can barely get air down my throat, I am getting blood on my dress and Elena and Stefan are arguing over his impressive use of force on her brother as they come to help me. Ooh I'm feeling a little woozy here, but I'm fairly sure Jeremy is doing better than I am as I can see him moving on the other side of the room. I try to gesture to them and Stefan stops me in order to remove the stake from my neck.

"Caroline let me do it." he repeats, not paying any heed to my need to grab his attention right now.

He gets the stake out and I can only whimper as an angry Jeremy rises, chair leg in hand and rushing at Stefan. He doesn't make it though as the force of his intended blow is blocked by Damon's Torso.

"Damon!" I hear Elena shout his name.

"Aarrrgh, you little punk." Damon doubles over, attempting to block Jeremy's continuing attack. Matt has now arrived and is attempting to pull Jeremy back. Seeing an opening, Damon draws himself up and hits Jeremy in the chest to push him back. When Jeremy comes at Damon again, he receives a thundering punch to the face and slumps to the floor while Damon drops to his knees. Elena goes to check on her brother.

Matt pulls Jeremy up of the floor and with some help from Elena gets him positioned against his side. Leaning together they should at least be able to stumble alongside each other if Matt wants to take him somewhere to cool off. "He's ok Elena I'll just take him out of here, so he doesn't get set of again. He should be alright with me, I'm only human. You stay here… help _him_." Matt nods in Damon's direction. Does Matt know something I don't?

I watch as Elena heads towards Damon who is still in the middle of the floor, fingering round the edges of the chair leg that's sticking through his side. He waves her off as she goes to remove it but she shifts to the floor beside him to get a better look anyways. Stefan is trying to use his breast pocket handkerchief to wipe the blood from me and is pointedly not looking at anything else. This is very strange.

Even though I'm healing I still feel a bit weak and noticing this Stefan moves and pulls me up with him from the floor.

"Let's go take you to get cleaned up."

I nod but it hurts.

Damon has finally found the angle he likes and tears the chair leg out of himself with a grunt as Elena stops him from falling over, catching him as he leans forward and then holding his face up in her hands so she can look him in the eye. They don't say anything to each other but I kinda get the feeling that both Stefan and I have stumble on a private conversation.

Stefan slides his arm around me and as we turn to leave we hear Elena's gentle voice.

"Are you Ok?"

"Yeah, I heal pretty fast." Damon groans. "Fresh as a daisy."

"Good…"

Stefan and I are already out the door when we hear the force of impact as she slaps him hard across the face.

* * *

 **AUTHOR'S NOTE:**

 **This is my moment that I'm going to take on behalf of Caroline Forbes...**

 **She is a complicated character and yes as a Delena fan myself she can be annoying when getting in the way of our hopes and dreams in season 4 but she is at heart a loyal friend. She also has a rocky history with Damon - season 1 he used her, season 2 he tried to kill her, season 3 he tried to kill her dad and that's just some of the stuff that he's done directly to her and not just done to her friends. To try and help you love her at least a little during these next few chapters I would like you to remember Matt's POV in this story where he thought:**

 **"Caroline is complicated when it comes to her feelings, particularly for her friends. She can be concerned that her friend loves somebody who isn't good for her and at the same time be annoyed when that same somebody won't even answer her friend's call."**

 **It's like she also wanted Damon to answer Elena's call. And yes during this time she is also dealing with weird feeling for Klaus which means she should not be arguing with Elena about Damon Cause klaus has surely done far worse and more of it in his life time.**  
 **I am aware though that my little speech may do nothing to help your opinion of Caroline and you are sitting there quite happy that she got stabbed in the neck... well I had to do something with her! Otherwise she was gonna get in the way of all the Delena coming up. lol**


	8. Caroline Part3

**(Continued scene)**

* * *

 **\- CHAPTER 8 -**

* * *

 **CAROLINE POV 3**

You know those moments where you literally couldn't get far enough away but the situation is giving you no way out? That is happening right now. With a hole the size of _Alaska_ in my neck and Stefan off in search of blood to feed the healing process I am stuck here in a room opposite the one I left so that none of the guests can see me looking like Frankenstein's freaky bride! So I'm about to witness what I am sure will be an epic fight considering the sound of that slap I heard.

Surround sound is really not a problem with vampire hearing but apparently I'm not going to need that what with _all the yelling_.

"What the hell is the matter with you?" I hear Damon's voice cut in.

Elena laughs in disbelief. "What's the matter with _me?_ You really don't know why I'd be mad at you?"

"Are you kidding me? I just saved everybody in here from Jeremy gone wild, I think a _thank you_ wouldn't be too unreasonable to _hope for!_ "

If I move just slightly to the left on this seat that Stefan has placed me in, I can see them moving towards each other. They're in a stand off as usual. Same stubborn anger, same furious faces.

"You expect me to thank you for helping my brother keep the fact that he is a hunter from me? You expect me to thank you for sneaking around in my life when you said you'd gone, coming into my house at night?"

"Well don't worry about me being gone because I really don't need to stay around for the happy couple show."

 _He was in her house?!_

Damon moves towards the door and I fall back against the chair out of the way. I needn't have bothered though as he's already snapped back around to take those same strides back to Elena coming within a foot of her.

"Consider the hunter secret me actually trying to do a good thing for your brother who was _actually_ trying to protect **_you_** from all this mess. As for sneaking into your house you can tap that up to a lapse in judgement, a left over protective instinct that I like to torture myself with."  
His tone is aggressive and Elena stands there for a moment, her face forming into the beginnings of an argument and ready to sound out her own feelings when apparently Damon thinks he can read minds…

"Don't worry, I haven't forgotten, I promised to leave so I'm going."

 _And he's moving, and he's moving… So he's leaving again?_ Typical!

 _Oh wait…he's really heading for the door this time, crap, crap crap, ouch, stupid chair!_

"So you're just leaving, again?"

"You're absolutely right, because why would I stay?"

He is stopped in the doorway, scowling and letting out a breath. Elena can only see his back from where she stands but I watch as his eyes shift slightly along the corridor and its the first time I think I've ever seen Damon look unsure. Finally he turns back to face her and I can tell by the tone of his voice that his face is not going to show any of that previous uncertainty.

"I can't stay here, I can't be here."

He moves towards her again, his angry voice carrying around the room. "Me leaving is the only way I can have a chance to regain my sanity, because being around you _drives me nuts!"_

"What if we actually need you here? What if Stefan needs you here?"

Damon lets out a dangerous laugh, his face blank in expression.

"Stefan doesn't need me here. As much as he loves his big bro I can tell when he would rather I was gone. Call me, I'll be here, but don't expect me to stay."

He dismisses her like she's an unfortunate one night stand, _what an obnoxious jack-ass!_

He turns again to go and I leap back again. _Make up your mind! I am hurting myself here! This ridiculous fancy chair has a hard back that I keep throwing myself into and I have had just about enough from the wooden furniture department for one day._ But it's Elena's now quieter, hurt voice that has me leaning forward in the seat once more.

"Yeah, well I did call you. I called you and I text you after you went and you never replied. I eventually got your new number from Alaric and when I rang it you didn't answer then either. I had to find out you're back by hearing the ringtone playing downstairs in my kitchen!"

I miss the next volley of this soap opera worthy fight as I see Stefan coming back to me and realise that this heated argument is probably not going to make his day. Their angry words begin to escape me ('blah blah, you could have told me, Blah blah, I have to go…") as Stefan reaches my side and hands me a fresh blood bag. He gives me a questioning look at my uncomfortable position but is interrupted before he can ask…

"Trust me Elena its the only way this is all going to work. I can't talk to you. I can't see you anymore, I can't even hear your voice and I sure as _**hell**_ don't want to be your friend… and you **_know_** _why…_ "

"…You love me."

"Yes, I love you… But you're always going to love Stefan."

I catch the slightly broken tone of Damon's voice and look at Stefan to try and see how he is reading this situation. His face is impassive, not giving anything away but I know he would have left our room to get away from hearing all this if Elena hadn't moved forwards. She's right at the doorway now where Damon is, her voice sounding nearer to my ears.

"I told you that I can't think about always, Damon. That night on the bridge - "

A frustrated groan comes from Damon "Look if you want to talk about that night, then talk, but I'm going to need a drink."

"Why can't you just admit that you're hurt?"

 _Oh boy_ , accusing Damon Salvatore of feelings is bad enough, poking at them is down right irresponsible if you like breathing. Unable to help myself, I lean forwards again and watch as he stalks forwards into the room making her back up all the way and getting right in her face.

"How would that do me any good Elena? I can't be what you want me to be! I can't be _who_ you think I can be! But I can tell you this. The summer we spent looking for Stefan was the _best time_ of my life, and I _hated_ myself for wanting you. I got to have you all to myself, every visit, every phone call any moment where you were close to me. _I loved every torturous bit of it._ And even when I was drowning in it I held on to every time I ever held you, every laugh that I ever heard and I have spent the last 2 months, 14 days, 7 hours and _16mins in agony over you…_ "

His voice raw, emotion running away with him and he breathes in a pained look.

"It's pretty clear of where you want to put any of your feelings for me and I can't even blame you because I am not the type of person you should choose. Why don't you go find Stefan and grab that dance he owes you from last year." His voice becomes rough and coated with anger. "Clearly I'm just getting in the way of things by putting my pretty little face in the door."

I hear Elena huff out and exasperated sigh, "You are unbelievable! You get a few words out and then all you do is use them to push me away again."

"Well I'm still here Elena, what do you want to say? Something on your mind? Is it the break up? Cause Stefan already told me about that!"

I look at Stefan and his face confirms everything Damon is saying and more.

"I'm sure it was nothing, teen love and all that. If you're worried about it at all, don't be - i'm sure it'll blow over by next week."

"There is something _seriously wrong with you!_ "

Elena's enraged voice surely has to be carrying down the corridor to the guests that I have lost interest in - I don't think I've ever heard her be this mad.

"How can you stand there and say that to me when you don't even know the reason why we broke up!"

The tension coming from their room is palpable, a solid force clawing its way into our space and I can practically feel the hair rise on Damon's neck as his angry tone reverberates even in our room.

"No, I don't know the reason, but I am sure it has everything to do with you acting so _insane_ so why don't you just _**tell me?!**_ "  
..

" _ **YOU!**_ "

…  
…

Elena's answer could have stopped my heart. Damon is the reason for the break up. What the F—

Damon's anger seems to deflate at her answer and if I had to have a guess at what the expression on his face is I'd say its one of stunned disbelief. As he makes a move to continue the moment his mouth opens to say something but he gets interrupted.

"Ahem, Damon Salvatore?"

 _Really? Somebody thought it was a good idea to walk in and interrupt this?_

"Professor Shane… Just the guy I wanted to see."

I seriously doubt that Damon wanted to see him right now but I guess whatever it is he needs to discuss must be important.

As Damon begrudgingly leaves the room with Professor Shane giving Elena one last hopeful look, I slowly withdraw too. This time I fall back to the seat for comfort because a part of my world has just turned on its head. Elena has broken up with Stefan… Over Damon?

* * *

 **One more Caroline POV and then you get a couple of POVs that you've been waiting patiently for.**


	9. Caroline Part4

**(CONTINUED)**  
 **(Miss Mystic Falls Pageant)**

* * *

 **\- CHAPTER 9 -**

* * *

 **CAROLINE POV 4**

I'm sure a lot of people heard that fight but I doubt it will make a dent in their day compared to the crater that's consumed this quiet room. I hate silences, they make me want to fill them. The trouble is I usually fill them with my babbling voice and sometimes I get the feeling that my words may not be as helpful as they sound in my head. There are too many words that I want to use right now and most would come in the form of a verbal assault towards Damon Salvatore. Not that I'd be letting Elena away with the complete losing of her mind! It can only be described as insanity to choose Damon over Stefan! Does she not see what Damon is like? He's a sadistic, arrogant, manipulative, man-bitch!  
Wherever would he fit Elena in between all the germ-ridden skanks that he lures back to his room? He's an absolute man slut - half of his stuff you couldn't touch for fear of couties! And yes I am aware that I played a role on his hit list but I refuse to be lumped in with his previous ' _lady friends_ ' as most of that desire to be around him was compulsion telling me not to be afraid of the bastard. And anyway he never took me back to his room at the boarding house, we only used the motel. Now that I think about it that's maybe kind of insulting. Damm him! Why can't he stay away?!  
Everywhere he goes there is this trail of destruction behind him which Stefan is left to clean up. He gets to do whatever he wants and people just forgive him and invite him back in like they're freakin lives are moths to his twisted flame or whatever. But now apparently we don't only forgive him we fall in love with him! Just excuse me while I give that a round of applause. By all means let the one person into your life Elena who will very likely tear it all apart. He is so wrong for her… _Right_?  
But she'll never listen to me, Damon is completely in her blind spot. I'll just have to watch as this goes down and be there for Stefan.

I shake myself out of my inner rant as I have been distracted by my own thoughts long enough. He's standing over at the window, staring out and gripping the sides of the walls. I really wish I hadn't been there to watch Stefan's face through all of that. It felt like the air had left the room but Stefan looked like his whole heart had been crushed.

He turns back towards me and his quiet thinking makes the silence in the room even louder. I am about to finally cave to my growing need to talk when he finally speaks, sounding defeated.

"Listen to them Caroline."

He looks me in the eye. I know who he's talking about.

"I've listened to them fight for over a year. I've heard them fight over Elena risking her life, over Damon making risky plans or not listening to her and I've heard them fight about the fact that they are simply standing in the same room, that Damon is too close or that Elena changed her shampoo and he noticed and liked the old one better. They always fight as if everything is on the line, like its the end of their world and the worst part doesn't come til after. When they've said everything that words can possibly express, there's just this silence before they back away again."  
He approaches me and I can see the pain all over his face.

"The silence is the worst part; even if it lasts for a fraction of a second or ten, because that's the moment I wonder what would happen if I wasn't there." He runs a hand through his hair. "They… Understand each other, they rely on each other even when it aggravates the life out of them and they claim to want it any other way. I don't know when it happened, it seems untraceable to me, all I know is that Elena and I have never fought like that."

I try to comfort him but as broken as he is at losing his epic love he seems resigned to this outcome as if it was expected and then I see his face crumple and he looks completely lost. I decide to wrap my arms around him and pull him in for a hug. We stand there and hold each other as everything sinks in.

I feel like my best friend has made the biggest mistake of her life.

* * *

 **..**..**..**

* * *

We stay standing like that until a rather annoying and frustratingly charming English accent pulls us apart.

"I'm not interrupting anything am I?"

His eyes spark with a very sinister kind of mischief but I really think he's just jealous because Stefan still has a hand on my back which I can see Klaus eyeing.

"You seem to move on pretty fast after a break up Stefan."

Damm him.

Stefan moves away towards the door but before he can make it, Klaus gets in his way.

"It seems you and Elena have that in common."

Stefan punches him hard and I jump in front of my friend before Klaus can have an overly violent reaction.

"Let him go Klaus."

He seems unwilling let it pass.

"Let him go and you and I can go and enjoy a nice walk by the river."

He looks at me and his anger dissolves into a genuine smile for all of two seconds before he looks back at Stefan.

"Very well, make your leave. Seems almost silly to have a quarrel between old friends."

He places a hand heavily of Stefan's shoulder and then escorts me from the room gently clasping my hand in his.

* * *

 **..**..**..**

* * *

Klaus actually turns out to be the distraction I needed to clear my head.

All day he has been this annoyingly perfect… date.

Not everything else about this day has been perfect but at least I got the contestants called out and all their dates showed up. Well, Matt came back and filled in for Jeremy as April's date. Probably a good idea as I don't think our guests needed to see Elena Gilbert's little brother attack me and out me as a vampire to the founders council. Of course yet another insult to me from Damon Salvatore is that April won Miss Mystic Falls in a red dress!

Now standing here I am keeping an eye on the guests, the waiting staff and generally rounding up my day as host of this event while the contestants dance with their partners. Then I see them.

They are standing away from each other in the crowd but there might as well be only the two of them down there. I see Damon look over at the dancers and back to Elena and I watch as she meets his stare expectantly and a small smile reaches her face. Damon looks like he wants to go to her and his hands repeatedly clench and flex behind his back yet he seems unable to break eye contact with her and actually move.

Elena is the one to slip out first from her side of the crowd and he follows to join her until the approach of Jeremy stops him. Not willing to risk Jeremy triggering his hunter instinct, Damon hangs back for a while watching just like I am, as Jeremy eventually heads in the direction of the parked cars.

Damon is beside her as soon as Jeremy is out of sight and they are talking about dear knows what, but I choose not to listen this time. I guess there really are some things you shouldn't hear. It seems Damon's plans of offering her a ride home have to be forgotten as I see Elena look awkward and apologetic as she points in the direction her brother left. There is no way they could go home safely with a vampire and a hunter in the same car.  
There's another moment of them just staring at each other and to my surprise even Damon looks awkward as they try to figure out how to leave each other. What were they now?

This is definitely a strange sight to watch as Damon with almost the same nervous and hopeful look of a guy asking out a girl he likes, simply pulls a rose from one of my hand-crafted flower arrangements and gives it to her. He puts it in her hand and I can tell from here that there must be a power surge somewhere in the world as the electric from this could light up the whole of Mystic Falls right now.

When their hands eventually fall away Damon seems ready enough to let her leave and puts his hands back in his pockets, I assume to stop himself from reaching out for her again. Elena considers him for a moment and then smiles a little bashfully before she turns to walk away. She throws one more look over her shoulder at him which I can tell has made his day. It's clear they need to talk and with everything going on around here I don't know when or how that will happen. I'll at least allow for the fact that there are genuine feelings on both sides and that as far as Damon is concerned, what I just witnessed was as close to adorable as he is ever likely to get.

I'm still not happy about it though.

When Elena is completely out of sight I watch as Alaric reaches Damon, handing him a drink and clapping him on the back. Brought out of his Elena trance Damon smiles again - which is like twice now today and the weirdest thing to see on his face. The Bromance that is Daralic moves its way over to the bar.

I feel a hand on my back and remember that I have not been standing here alone.

"Well this has been an eventful day."

When I still can't take my eyes away from the now empty scene below, he leans closer.

"That was always going to happen love."

"How can you possibly know that?"

"Don't underestimate the allure of darkness, Caroline." He whispers right in my ear, "Even the purest hearts are drawn to it."

I know what he's trying to say and I hate that those words make me feel a good kind of uncomfortable in the pit of my stomach. Thankfully he pulls away. I turn around to watch him, his eyes are waiting for my reaction and laughing while I can't form words. That smug bastard.

His parting words of the day to me are, "Still, I'm sure it will all be fine."

I ignore him and make my way to say goodbyes to the guests. Pfft, What does he know? But a little voice inside me says that he could be right, and not just about Elena.

* * *

 **That's the last of the Caroline Forbes show which should please most of you. I think I said Elena and Damon would be up next…. and they were until I felt guilty about not writing Tyler so I gave it a go. But I promise this time that Elena's POV will be after his. This was also just another shameless excuse to write the Dalaric bromance which I love, and to fill you in on my thoughts for where this season version of mine would go. As a peace offering though I'm posting Caroline and Tyler's together so it's basically like a freebie. i'm all about the offers.**


	10. Tyler

**(Miss Mystic Falls Pageant)**

* * *

 **\- CHAPTER 10 -**

* * *

 **TYLER POV**

Well this day sucks.

I've had to watch all day as Klaus escorts Caroline around on his arm, and the worst part is he knows I'm watching. I look around and everywhere I go I see couples that have inexplicably ended up together. Everybody at the pageant is with someone that you wouldn't have thought they'd have come with. I brought Hayley instead of my girlfriend because Caroline had to go with Klaus, Stefan has actually just disappeared, Matt escorted April even though I'm pretty sure that was Jeremy's job, _he's also disappeared_. And then there's Damon and Elena.

I envy Damon this one thing - he knows what he wants and he goes for it. Its all, balls out, tell them right to their face that you want them and to hell with the consequences, just throw your whole life into it. And yes he's been smacked down hard for putting himself out there sometimes but I can't help but think he got things right. Things seem to have worked out for him. I watch as he hands Elena a flower and says goodbye, his eyes following after her as she leaves. Everything is falling into place for him it seems.

My problem is that things are starting to line up for me too, I'm just worried that Caroline doesn't seem to be one of them. She is the girl who risked her life to help me during my first full moon and she is the one that I broke every bone in my body for just to be free from Klaus so that I wouldn't hurt her. I think that part of the reason that I'm so mad at her for being here with him is that I know that some day I'll have to leave her behind and the thought that she might end up with him is more than I can take. On top of all this, dealing with the loss of a hybrid brother has put me out of the loop with everything that's been going on with my friends. I feel like I'm constantly being torn between the two. I can't explain it, it feels like a gut instinct to want to free the pack from Klaus and to protect them from being killed. We're like some kind of strange family now and I don't know how to help Caroline understand what being part of a pack is like, never mind what it means to me.

With the looks passing between Damon and Elena I'm guessing that communication doesn't seem to be much of an issue with them - love is in the air. I don't really know what I should say about it, I don't really have an opinion except for the fact that at least it's not Klaus Michelson.

I look up at Caroline, she looks gorgeous, and how could I not love her after everything we've been through but I know once the pack is free of Klaus it won't be safe to stay here. I'm going to have to go and I don't see Caroline looking to come with me. She's too loyal a friend to leave everyone here behind just for me. I haven't even told her that I've already decided that I won't be going to collage next year. I've got no idea how to break it to her.

Keeping my eyes on them I watch as Caroline and Klaus move away from their vantage point. It frustrates me that he has had her this whole day and she has just gone along with it. I decide that instead of tracking them the best option for me is to follow Damon and Mr Saltzman back to the bar.

By the time I arrive Damon has already poured Alaric's drink and is fixing his own no doubt having compelled the bartender to leave the bottle with them. Without even acknowledging my presence he even pours me one too. I guess someone is in a good mood.

Alaric Is smiling and watching Damon over the lip of his glass until finally Damon caves and looks up at him meeting his smug face with one of attempted indifference. Ric's smile grows as he watches the alcohol swirl in his glass before he eventually speaks and lets Damon in on what he's thinking.

"I thought you'd be running after her, after all the _goo goo eyes_ you were throwing her way."

Damon shrugs and plays along, "Hey, I got my vampire pride to think about."

He downs his drink and pours another, "Plus I already offered her a lift but the littlest Gilbert has had a hunter overload and needs to cool off. _He doesn't think I'm so hot right now_."

"What does his sister think?"

Damon smiles at him for trying to pry information out of him about Elena but his face soon turns unsure, becoming serious for a moment.

"That I'm not completely sure of but when I find out… _I still won't tell you._ "

His smirk stretches across his face and Alaric holds out his glass for another round.

"Oh Please, once you're drunk you'd tell me anything. That's how I found out about what you did for Rose remember? And just so you know, the term 'over share' is a real issue with you when you're like that so I don't need to hear any over zealous details about you and Elena."

I hear Damon make a Pfft sound, "A gentleman never tells."

" _Yeah right._ " I air my thought out loud and it turns out to be a mistake as Damon lifts the unfinished drink out of my hand and drinks it himself before going back to pretending like I'm not there. This doesn't seem to phase Alaric in the slightest and they go back to their conversation, Damon leading the way.

"Don't be so dramatic Ric, me drunk-talking about Rose was a one time thing, I am perfectly capable of keeping any sordid details locked down." He mimes a locked key in front of his mouth and Ric laughs disbelievingly before covering it with a cough and then launching into what I presume is an imitation of a drunk Damon Salvatore…

 _"Ric, She's so beautiful, man I love her, I can't leave her…"_ Damon rolls his eyes and Ric continues only getting more dramatic, " _But she chose Stefan… How the hell does the same shit happen to the same guy twice?_ "

Getting exasperated Damon steals Ric's glass and finishes his drink too. "I'm cutting you off… and I think you've been watching die-hard to much buddy cause I did not say anything remotely resembling that, _ever._ "

Un-phased at losing his drink Ric replies, "It was Die Hard 2 and we watched it before you left." Still hamming up his dramatic performance he goes on further, " _It was right before Christmas, there was snow, I'd never known it so cold before,_ _and when you left? I'd never felt so alone._ "

This time I laugh out loud and end up on the receiving end of a glare that normally would have seen the end of my life but I hold my hands up and back up a seat so that Damon at least gets the illusion of a private conversation with Ric. When he rounds the same glare on his friend it doesn't have quite the same effect and the two wind up sharing another drink together. How do you even explain that?

Alaric is the first to start a different conversation back up.

"I know you've been helping Jeremy out." Damon moves to interrupt but Alaric stops him, "I'm not going to give you a hard time for hiding it from Elena I'm just looking to warn you that there are others who know what you're up to" Alaric's eyes slide over to my direction and I know immediately who he is talking about.

"You mean Klaus."

Ric nods his head at me. "There's more to Jeremy's mark than the hunter clued him in on and according to Klaus it's really more of a map than some macho tribal tattoo."

"Oh yeah? A map to _where_?" Damon sounds ominous, and I am with him, nothing good ever came after Klaus Mickelson shared information freely.

Not looking us in the eye Ric goes back to watching his drink, "According to Klaus its a map to the cure… The cure to vampirism." Letting that sink in Ric sets his drink back on the bar without touching it and turns round to meet Damon's gaze.

"Look I don't know whether to buy into this or not, it's Klaus after all but if there is a cure then I'll go for it. It's not exactly a shocker that being a vampire hasn't exactly been the best turn of events for me. I don't think it's going to work out in the long run."

Damon nods his head understanding, "Whatever you need buddy, we'll get you the cure. But you know that our Original forefather probably has an ulterior motive behind all this."

"I do… And I can take a guess as to what it is. He wants me to take the cure in case my sadistic vampire hunting urges come back and I try to wipe him out along with all his family."

"Including his sire-line."

"Including you, yes. It is a possibility, we don't know for sure if Bonnie's magic is going to hold forever or if once she's… _gone_ , I'll be back to that monster. I don't want that." He sighs and lifts his glass again contemplating it.

"No doubt if I get the cure he'll probably kill me when I'm human just to make sure I'm not coming back."

"Well lets say we stop that from happening." Damon lifts his drink up and Alaric meets it with his own glass. I share a private toast of my own with them in the background, here's to beating Klaus at his own game.  
I'm still not included in the conversation and I'm happy to be left out, but aware that I am still there Damon refills my drink. His good mood has returned I guess.

Things slip into silence for moment before Damon looks up, his face shifting between optimism and trying to keep things business as usual.

"What. A. Day. I came back, I got to see Elena, there's a cure for you so we just need to help Jeremy figure out the rest of his happy hunter trail… Elena might not be too pleased about that but she'll come around when its all to help you and… _What?"_ Damon pauses as Alaric is once again smirking at him.

Instead of answering though, Ric just laughs and takes a sip of his scotch. He turns in his seat at the bar to watch the rest of the people making their way home and Damon who is still focused on the bar area, allows a crooked grin to spread out on his face. I laugh to myself because that has got Elena Gilbert pistol whipped all over it.

Alaric captures the end of this grin before Damon can hide it away again and just shakes his head chuckling to himself.

"You got the girl, man."

In a moment of pleased disbelief, Damon relaxes and meets Ric's eye.

"I got the girl."

"Now what are you gonna do about it?"

I've interrupted again and Damon's glare once more tries to dissolve me. I think it's about time I leave the pageant and go check on the pack's progress. I notice that when I walk back that way again with Hayley, Damon is already gone and Alaric is left alone at the bar, he raises his glass at me with a knowing grin then goes back to his crowd watching and no doubt his contemplation of entering the human ranks once more. Clearly Damon figured out exactly what he was going to do.

* * *

 **Just to keep you up to speed there are now 3 chapters left of the story - Elena, Damon and ...**


	11. Elena

**AUTHOR NOTE:**  
 **I find these things hard to judge but I'm gonna put this down for an M rated chapter and change the rating on the story.**

* * *

 **CHAPTER 10**

* * *

 **ELENA'S POV (M Rated)**

It's been a long day.

A long, weird and kinda surprising day and I'm not too sure how I feel about the way it ended but maybe I can work that out tomorrow. I look at myself in the bathroom mirror and try to see if I notice anything different about my appearence. Should I see something different? After you admit that the reason you broke up with your boyfriend was because of his brother and you then tell that brother about it - shouldn't there be a dark mark of some description? I look at my feet. Would a pair of Katherine's slutty, high heels appear there?

 _"It's okay to love them both."_ that's what she said…

I don't think its okay but that doesn't mean it hasn't happened.

But I appear to still be me. No heels, no dangerously low cut top, my hair remains straight and I don't look like I'm planning to manipulate and endanger everyone around me just to save my own skin.

I'm ready for bed and my dress from earlier hangs behind me on the door distracting me. I remember his eyes on me in the crowd, the touch of his hand on mine… I reach across the sink for the rose he gave me which sits in a glass of water. It's petals are still soft as they kiss my skin, only beginning to show a little wear from the fact that I keep running my fingers over them. I look at the mirror again and a smile has crept on my face. My reflection rolls her eyes at me but I know I'm smiling at the flower again before I leave.

Switching the lights off in the bathroom, I come into my room and turn to find Damon there. More specifically I find Damon in my bed, one hand behind his head the other holding my teddy bear to his chest apparently just studying the ceiling. Damon's invasion of my bedroom has been one of slow progression since I've known him. Each time he comes here he pushes one step further. Tonight is no different. This time he's lying fully clothed under the covers. I notice his boots at the end of the bed. How does he just make himself at home like that? My frustration gets put to the side however, when In an effort to keep himself comfortable, he decides to break the silence before it drags out awkwardly.

"I've been thinking…"

"About how easy it is to break into my house?"

He ignores me.

"I think I should have a drawer in your room. You know, a little place to call my own. I can store a good bottle of bourbon in there, some clean underwear maybe?"

He's smirking. He's been back home, he knows the drawer is empty, the white oak stake missing along with his boxers. I have nothing I can say to this but I can't stand here all night hoping he hasn't found his boxers in my underwear drawer.

"You know my brother wants to kill you.'

"So does mine, so tell the little Gilbert to get in line. Maybe they can form a club."

"I'm sure it will have quite a full membership."

"As long as you aren't a member I think I'll survive."

He looks over at me now and his face softens into a look I don't think I've ever seen on him. I can't quite make out what it is, but it's different and very endearing. Between the look I can't discern and the way his eyes move over me before focussing on my face, I'm starting to feel a little exposed. He's seen me like this before, its not the first time he's shown up while I'm dressed for bed, but after everything today there's a lot of things that haven't been said. Just like our awkward goodbye at the pageant, this moment is a bit unsure of what it should be.

Before he makes me more awkward looking than I want to be right now I decide to just suck it up and lift the covers to climb in. He watches me settle down and lie on my back. Now both of us are staring at the ceiling and its really not that interesting to look at.

I hear him sigh, "This would be so much more fun if we were naked."

I think my eyebrows shoot up into my hair line somewhere at that and I turn to see that he has both hands behind his head and a complete shit-eating grin on his face. I shove him hard in the side although I have no intention of kicking him out of bed. I think he knows this because he feigns hurt before letting a dirty laugh bubble out of him. I wish I was better at maintaining a poker face but I can't help laughing too, I can't hide it.

He shuffles a little closer to my side and the bed shifts as he leans over and whispers to me,

"Oh, don't worry, I didn't see you smile."

"At least you took your boots off."

"Noted. Elena likes it when I remove clothing before bed. Next time I'll do better." He's doing that eye thing of his at me again.

"Next time, hm?"

"Well its been part of my long term evil plan to find out if you snore when you sleep."

"And this plan to investigate my sleeping patterns requires you to wear less clothes?"

"Like I said, it would be much. More. Fun."

His eyes spark and I can't help but laugh again as his eyebrows dance up and down with the insinuation of what this type of fun might entail.

He watches me for a moment before he drawls out, "You can relax, I know you don't snore. But you do drool."

He reaches over pretending to wipe some away from my mouth while I playfully slap his hand away and try to cover any more laughing of mine. Jeremy is sleeping a couple of doors away and I wasn't lying when I said he wants to kill Damon. A vampire in my bed is not going to make that situation better. To be honest I'm finding the fact that Damon is in my bed a little hard to deal with myself right now.  
After him being away for months and thinking I might not see him again, Damon is finally right beside me. My laughter dissolves completely as I realise something that I've been denying the whole time he's been gone. Before we go back to looking at the ceiling I decide to say what needs to be said.

"I missed you, you know… when you were gone?"

"I know."

He looks a little guilty as he turns his whole body my direction. I copy him and I can tell that he reads every part of the confusion on my face at his answer.

"That night with Jeremy may not have been the only time I was in your bedroom. It's just the only night I got caught, which technically was your fault. You distracted me… You were dreaming…"

"Let me guess, _you were naked and I loved it._ "

He smiles but forces himself to be serious for a moment longer.

"No. It sounded like a bad dream."

His brow creases as he goes back to the memory.

"I went to stop you from kicking the covers off, which I'm sure would have been even more distracting…"

His hand is moving, reaching out to touch my cheek as he continues.

"I put my hand on you, just like this, and you went really still. Then you said my name…"

He's still touching my cheek, rubbing his thumb gently back and forth like I imagine he did that night. I see his soft look make a fluid motion towards mischief again.

"Who knows maybe in your dreams I was naked."

He smirks and lets his hand fall away from my face to lie between us. I raise a disbelieving eyebrow at him,

"Maybe I was asking you to grab a towel. You do have a tendency to be naked for no reason."

He shrugs it off with a signature eye roll and I find myself delving into a memory that precedes his comeback. Me arriving at the boarding house, him knowing I was there, bubbles sliding down an exposed happy trail…

"Birthday present, Birthday suit, sometimes I get the two of those mixed up, its the strangest thing. Plus you told me not to get you anything that year so I went with what was free… and available."

I can't help but let my eyes look down the bed where his body rests close to mine and damm him for bringing that memory to mind because I should be madder at him for the fact that after all his time away he has been close by all along.

Ok so maybe I am a little mad.

Yeah I'm mad.

I've been holding back so many feelings while he was gone even from myself. The one person I wanted to fight them out with wasn't here so I walled them in and they built up without me knowing and yes I might be angry with him but mostly I just feel hurt that he left me.

"You know you promised me once that you'd never leave me again."

He wasn't expecting my off topic comeback and it throws him for a moment. I remember the night he made that promise, the night that Stefan attacked me in the school and we thought we'd lost him forever. Klaus attacking me and taking my blood and the whole time I was looking for Damon and he wasn't there. We'd had a fight and I hadn't seen him all day and now he wasn't there. It wasn't until I woke up abandoned in a hospital bed that I finally found who I had been waiting for. He had lifted me off the bed and as soon as I was in his arms I knew I was ok. There was nobody that could have made me feel safer in that moment.

"You promised me, you told me tha-"

"I never should have left."

"…Yeah."

He's staring into my eyes intently trying to make me see that he means it for this time round too. A tear escapes me giving him an excuse to touch my face again; he rubs it away and his voice is soft when he answers me.

"Well technically I didn't leave, as according to you I was still _creeping_ into your house at night."

"You _were_ creeping." I sniffle.

"Creeping is an ugly word and I don't think it applies to me. I have a key."

Now it's my turn to roll my eyes. It wouldn't be too hard to guess that at some point Alaric has been an unsuspecting victim of Damon's key thieving.

"So… _I was not_ creeping just… checking."

He looks away from me for a second. "Between that and making pitstops at all our little road trip destinations… it kinda felt like I never left you behind at all…"

The admission takes me by surprise. So that's where he's been? Taking trips down our old memories on the road? The bar in Atlanta? Did he even go to Duke where we looked for stuff on Isobel? The woods in Tennessee where we searched for Stefan? Chicago? The motel in Denver…? Not exactly the best place to go to forget about us. It's pretty ingrained in my memory… I bite my lip at the flashback, wondering where that night could have lead to if there had been no interruption.

He lifts my hand up between us and our palms meet, slowly closing that gap between them. Before long he is threading his fingers in between mine and I realise there is a lot to talk about that we have been avoiding, but him holding my hand like this makes more sense to me than any words that I could say or write down. So instead I watch him, I love watching him. He is transfixed by the simple act of getting to hold my hand in his. I watch his face as he studies the way our hands meet, the way each finger of his is wrapped through mine and its like an electric current runs through me made from movements and memories of feelings and knowings and I feel myself sway with it until I spill over.

"That dance that they did today… Kinda reminded me of—"

"When we danced together?"

His eyes shoot to mine and the air feels heavy around us from these simple words.

"I wanted to dance with you today…"

He breathes out slowly and I feel him move his free hand under my side and around my waist to pull me to him. Letting that hand slip around me to my lower back, he moves me upwards very slightly on the bed and settles his feet under mine so that my feet sit on top of his under the covers.

Everything now in place I just follow his lead.

He looks down as I try to move the arm I've been lying on. My aim was to put my hand on his shoulder, but realising it would be uncomfortable I continue further and wrap it around the back of his neck letting my fingers twist in his hair.

He eventually looks me in the eye and I find that I can meet his gaze even though I feel like he's telling me something intimate with that look. I watch as he straightens up slightly, more solid, now he's staring at me and there is so much in his eyes that I have to pull myself into him, get out of his intense gaze and just rest my head against his. We're closer now and in my mind I imagine us swaying and slowly turning to whatever song Damon has in his head. But we're just holding each other. Just breathing, relaxing, safe.

I finally know what I want and who I want.

I hear him breathing deeply and I can feel him everywhere around me, the reassuring scent of him and his arms surrounding me. His almost abandoned hand on my back has begun to knead the fabric of my top, running circles with his fingers and then curling into my clothing. If it wasn't setting me on fire I would have found it very relaxing.

I feel Damon move his head, turning it towards me and I hope he's going to kiss me. Instead I'm met with his intense blue eyes again, his lips close to mine as he leads me gently into a dip of sorts letting me fall back unto the bed gently. I catch a glimmer of desire on his face and when he draws me back in again I'm ready. The kiss he pulls me into is what we were both waiting for and we breathe out, releasing ourselves into it. His hand is splayed out on my back and holding me to him tightly. I run my hand over his jawline and turn his head so that I can deepen the kiss just in case he starts thinking about pulling away. I thread both my arms up and around his neck, dragging my body up and towards him, making a soft moan when his hands slip to my waist and then further down, gripping me firmly.

His entire body pressed into mine and our lips carried away with the taste of each other, I allow my hand to move down his shoulder towards his shirt buttons. Thinking my movement is away from him he gently curls my hand in his and places it back around his neck, his kiss now burning into me asking me not to go anywhere. It's all the invitation I need to push up harder against him, wrapping myself around him, feeling the air leave my lungs slightly as his tongue meets mine and the hands he once had on my back move up my sides touching my breasts and its too much, I need him. I push him back a little, and his eyebrows raise slightly thinking he's done something wrong. Whatever he reads in my gaze he gets it, and moves to sit up. I barely wait for him as I quickly crawl into his lap and we collide. The force of my body on his takes him by surprise and we slip slightly, his arms protecting me from the side table as he kisses me back hard, the lamp crashing to the floor as I crash into him.  
I can feel the smile in his kiss as he lets me pin him back against the headboard his hands roaming over me and I feel him everywhere on my body as it arches, pushing my chest into his. I kiss him once more, quickly before I move back, grabbing the front of his shirt and ripping it open. My hands drop to his belt and quickly undo it. He grabs me back to him, kissing me hard as I slide his zip down and suddenly I'm on my back, Damon pressing into me and his hand sliding around and under my thigh to drag it up over his hip, and I am lost.

His lips are on my neck and I am gasping for air as his hands have already found the hem of my tank top and are moving it oh so slowly upwards, his hands finally cupping my breasts. I have to kiss him again just so I can breathe and its hot and urgent and not a little desperate but he is right there with me. We part reluctantly so he can slide my top up over my head and he takes full advantage of even that quick movement to caress a path along my skin. With that piece clothing gone Damon returns his mouth to my body, every new part that has been revealed. My fingers clench in his hair as he tastes me, kissing my breast, his tongue darting out to tease my nipple, his hand moving down my writhing body and heading beneath the rim of my underwear to where I want him. I moan his name and he hums deeply. I feel it all the way through me as I know his sound of satisfaction was because I was ready for this. I want this, I want him.

The feeling is mutual and we both reach at once to remove the last of each others clothing. A collision of limbs and tattered shirts probably some ripped underwear thanks to Damon and the tangle of the covers wrapping around us so every movement rubs us together in all the right places. Our hands move over each other, touching places we have been desperate to reach and it is addictive, I love finding out new things about him.

Damon really likes to be touched.

Every movement of my hands on his body no matter how rough or gentle produces some sort of audible response. A hum when I run my hand over his chest, a growl when I follow his happy trail all the way down.

I move to get on top again and he rolls underneath, the movement giving me time to really look at his face as he watches me, taking me all in and its not what I expect to see. I don't see a lascivious grin, I don't even see that eye thing that he does. I see all the things that I can't put words to. It hits me that he can't believe this is really happening and that he's thinking he'll probably screw this up. He's worried that as much as he wants this, and I can feel how much he wants this, that one bump in the road might ruin everything. So I kiss him softly and he breathes again. If there is one thing Damon has made clear to me it's that he doesn't want to lose me. Its what causes him to choose me every time no matter what I say or who else needs saving. So I rock against him gently and I kiss him a little harder and I lift his hands up and place them on my body. I touch his face and work my hands back through his hair so that he sighs into my mouth allowing my tongue to taste him and I hope he understands what I'm trying to tell him.

I'm choosing him.

Something must click for him because the kiss intensifies and I feel more than a little hot as Damon's hands return to their exploration of me. He is hard beneath me and I feel him rubbing teasingly against me causing me to moan. I've felt how sexy he was before. A look, a touch, an invasion of personal space… but I am so wet for him right now that I feel like everything inside me will implode so I grind down hard against him for some sort of relief and I nearly come undone.

He flips me over and even though there is little that could stop this from happening now I find his eyes checking mine to make sure. I pull him down into me because of all the choices I've made, this is not even close to the worst one and I'm not sorry for it. He has been a terrible person but I'm not sorry that I met him, I'm not sorry that I want him in my life and I'm definitely not sorry that he is lying naked between my legs right now, rocking into my body, our hands clasped by my head.

He presses me down into the sheets, his hands going under me lifting me up into him at the right angle. My back arches as I shiver with building pleasure under the repetitive motion of our bodies and I revel in it because I am not sorry that he's the one that makes me feel most alive. He asks me a question with his lips kissing my neck and I respond by kissing down his shoulder, his arm, anything I can reach. Every movement of him inside me sends delicious heat right down to my centre, a fever pitch crescendo rising in my veins as blood races through me taking electricity with it.

Our kisses are getting messy, our motions quickening and I know I'm ready to come apart beneath him. The room is filled with gasps and moans and whispered names and I can't be sorry for that either because Damon is holding my gaze and loving me and I'm not sorry that I'm in love with him.

I love Damon.

I moan with it and he kisses me, breathing heavily himself and uses his fingers to add to my pleasure. I come hard and he catches the sound of it with his lips and continues rocking into me to ride it out until I feel him come as well, his body tensing and slowly relaxing as he moans my name.

I love him.

* * *

 **DAMON POV up next.**


	12. Damon

**(The morning after the night before.)**

* * *

 **\- CHAPTER 12-**

* * *

 **DAMON'S POV**

She's watching me. I kinda like it.

Plus we're both naked so this might qualify as my favourite morning ever. My eyes are closed but I bet you she looks stunning, all morning-sun and after-sex glow and seductive brown eyes. Even the thought of it takes my breath away, but I keep my eyes shut because I'm not sure this is real. I've had this dream before.  
Whatever she wants to study I'll let her do it because I am fine with this moment moving as slowly as possible. Mornings should be lazy like this - there should always, always, always be a naked Elena in my bed. _Always_.

I can tell her whole body is turned towards me and I can hear everything. Her breathing, her heartbeat, her thinking. I know she's thinking, there's a whole carnival of thoughts going on in her mind right now of things we didn't talk about.

I think we said a lot last night.

We can get brutally honest when we're fighting but I think I like this new way of talking.

She is reaching over and I catch her scent as she gently runs her hands into my hair. She smooths it back from my face and is probably making funny animal shapes with it from the way her fingers move through it, but the whole thing is very relaxing. I love the way she touches me, what she can make me feel with just the slightest movement of her hand, her lips, her body, I surrender to every teasing torment of it.

I would chase her forever.

I want her for as long as she'll have me; for as long as she'll allow me to crawl back into her bed or stand begging at her front door, I'll do it. I'll stay longer than she wants me to because I _am_ that selfish and I want her to be happy and I want her to get everything she wants in life and I don't even know what I want outside of that except for her to have all that with me, because being away from her sucked. I left everything good in me behind when I had to leave her and I may not be able to be everything I think she deserves but I damm sure _hate_ everything about me that hasn't got her attached to it. My whole life I've wanted someone like her and yesterday I found out it was possible and last night she was in my arms, sexy as hell and choosing _me_.

She's so beautiful it kills me and I want nothing more than to be with her forever but I'll take whatever she's giving and if I have anything that she wants I will give it to her. She can take my car and burn it for scrap metal, she can clear out my complete whiskey stock as long as she keeps arguing with me, keeps fighting for me keeps thinking there is something in me worth saving, cos when she does that, sometimes I believe it.

I know I'm no good for her, I know it.

I miss 1864 me sometimes. Human me. He would have been good for her. She said once that she likes me now the way I am - but, _really?_ I'm a dick. I used to be the guy that was reliable. I watched out for Stefan, I protected him, I stood by my family, and then I fell in love… with a _bitch_. But I would let Katherine destroy me all over again if it meant I got to meet Elena, even if Katherine pulled me apart, Elena is worth it. I look ahead and she's all I can see and it's been like that since I first laid eyes on her.

I was a cocky ass the first night I met Elena. I know she didn't think it, maybe wouldn't even have looked to anybody like I was, but I was. Playing the mysterious guy card and offering her my guide to the Galaxy,

 _ **"You want what everybody wants."**_

There are some definite ass-like qualities to me thinking I could give her anything good.

Maybe I am dreaming because I can see that night clearly like every memory of her, it has been replayed in my mind a thousand times. But maybe this one more particularly because I wonder if I'm still right in keeping it from her. If maybe I should give her both her missing memories back…

 ** _"I don't know what I want."_**

 ** _"Well that's not true. You want what everybody wants."_**

 ** _"What? A mysterious stranger who has all the answers?"_**

I liked her immediately, she knew how to laugh. She was already making me laugh. Out there in the middle of nowhere confidently talking to a complete stranger and unaware of what I was. Thinking I was only kinda creepy and spilling her boyfriend troubles.

 ** _"Well let's just say I've been around a long time, I've learned a few things."_**

 ** _"So damon, tell me. What is it that I want?"_**

 ** _"You want a love that consumes you."_** Her face told me I right. _**"You want passion and adventure and even a little danger."**_

I knew I was right.

 ** _"So, what do you want?"_**

Her question threw me. The fact that she was curious enough to ask me? Maybe that's what was drawing me in. Elena and her big heart asking a monster what he wanted out of life and me being more than little rattled that everything in me was saying all I wanted was her.

 ** _"I want you to get everything you're looking for…"_**

* * *

I must have fallen asleep again.

I open my eyes and the bed is empty. Her teddy bear is watching me from the floor with judgey little eyes, poor guy probably saw a little too much last night. The thought amuses me for some reason but I have a naked lady to find.

"…Elena?"

My voice is a little groggy but she hears me and comes out of her bathroom. She's not naked anymore but my black shirt has never looked so good.

"Hey."

"Hey."

If I could slow down her next movement I would because she is running towards me, ripped shirt revealing some underwear that will require closer inspection, and bouncing into bed beside me and I can't believe I get to touch her. As soon as she settles beside me I give in to the inevitable, my hands reaching out as I trace my finger along the cup of her bra. She doesn't slap my hand away, she doesn't even bat an eyelid.

"I thought you might have left."

"No I don't have to be at school for, at least… _20mins ago._ " I smirk at her imaginary watch that she just checked.

And then she's kissing me and I could happily fold in around her because she is holding me to her, she's touching me back and she is wearing a shirt that she ripped off of me last night and I can't help playing with her hair and pulling the shirt back a bit to see more of her. This is the best day of my life and I can't even hide the smile thats spreading through me and she sees it.

"What's that face?"

 _"What face?_

" _That_ face."

I'll admit it, "I'm happy"

Urrgh I'm such a sap but she seems to like my response and I kiss her so she can't see everything I'm feeling right then. I want her to feel it to.

I suddenly find myself very happy as she rolls me over and kisses the smile from my lips. She can taste it on me and I feel like my eyes might roll back into my head as she kisses along my chin, down my neck, her hands following her all the way down and then sliding up again to touch my cheek. I kiss her wrist and she pauses right above my stomach muscles, where I can feel her breath on my skin until I let her hand go and she continues. This time I feel her smile on my skin as she presses her lips into me, letting the covers fall away and _aawwweee yyyesssss._

I can only take so much before I need to flip her over and prepare to return the favour, I"m nothing if not a gentleman. So I kiss her mouth and trace the outline of her lips with my fingers; those dangerous lips that she just used to nearly shorten this amazing morning sex that we're having. She see's me smile again before I go down to where she needs me, working my mouth over the sensitive skin of her inner thigh until she is writhing and grabbing my hair.  
I kiss my way up her body and she throws her arms back above her head letting me make my own way up until I reach her lips again and I move on top of her. In a move that is so hot it blows my mind, she grabs my hand showing me where she wants me to touch her and drags it all the way down the curves of her body until she reaches her panties. She turns her head to kiss me again and nips my lower lip between her teeth encouraging me to move.

So I do.

I slide her underwear down her legs and return to kiss her slowly and deeply until she has trouble breathing and I'm not much better. Kissing her neck and moving into her body we're both already so close and it's really really good. I feel her clutch me tighter as she trembles around me and her nails bite into my back leaving marks as she moans her release and makes me come with her.

I lie on top of her, still joined to her but she doesn't seem to mind, she's still coming down. still letting everything unwind and I can't do anything else other than kiss along the racing pulse in her throat until finally meeting her lips for a long lazy kiss.

"I love waking up with you."

She responds by laughing and what has she done to me because I'm laughing too. Our bodies are shaking with it and its cuddly and slightly sweaty and it feels amazing. _She is amazing_ and I tell her that and she kisses me. I rest my forehead against hers and she rubs her nose against mine making me smile, I have a feeling I'll be grinning like an idiot all day.

Maybe a part of me should be feeling slightly guilty for being with my brother's girl but I'd rather be drinking in the fact that she's not, she might actually be mine.

"I should get to school." I hear her groan, "I need to shower."

She sees the thought on my face at that idea and is smiling, already ahead of me. "Maybe I should go alone? I'm already late."

"Maybe…" And I run my hand down her side and around her back to undo her bra, placing kisses on her neck, her chest…

"Damon what are you doing?"

 _"Helping."_

I go to smooth my shirt off her shoulders, sliding of the straps of her bra and throwing them both unto the floor over her judgemental stuffed bear. She doesn't expect my hand to gently skim her side and the movement causes her to giggle. So she gets tickley there? Hmm… I'm pretty good with my hands and before long I have her laughing, her legs trying to push her away from me, her hands reaching for me to inflict the same punishment I am tormenting her with. The whole motion of it is very enjoyable.

I grab one of her flailing feet that has moved up my side and move in for the kill running my fingers quickly along the arch of her foot making her scream out in laughter and I have cover it with a kiss because I _do not_ want any interruptions. The moment has both of us grinning and breathing heavily again, so I do a favourite little eyebrow dance of mine and before she can comment I lift her out of bed. I give her a brief moment to adjust to the fact that we are now standing naked in the middle of her bedroom and then I throw her up over my shoulder and haul her cute little ass into the shower with her laughing and slapping at me.

"Oh calm down, I'll even show you my sexy dance."

If any night deserved a happy morning after shower it was last night and I am more than up for some naked shower dancing.

She's still laughing as I set her back on her feet, her arms sliding up around my neck as I reach by her to get the hot water flowing.

"You have a dance that you do in the shower?"

"Doesn't everybody? I'll show you mine…"

She pulls her arms tighter around me and I follow her into the rising steam, backing her under the spray and pulling the door shut behind me.

She feels fantastic and I am definitely a fan of whatever soap she has decided to rub all over me, down my chest, over my back, kissing me between my shoulder blades. She has already got shampoo in my hair and it takes me a while to realise that she's messing with me, already lifting my hair up into a mohawk and biting her lip to keep from smiling. I growl playfully back at her and grab for her sides, holding her in place as I shake out the mess of suds under the water making sure she gets most of it on her. We're standing really close and I can't not kiss her. I love this woman.

I don't know if she's ready to say what she feels for me but I am going to kiss into every inch of her skin what I feel for her; throw her into my bed and never let her leave, make her call out my name, have her crash into me like she did last night.

When we kissed it wasn't like some kind of test drive in Denver, it was something more. Not that I really minded making that memory with her but last night had more meaning to it. There's something there that has me twisting impatiently on the inside waiting for her to say it because as soon as she does, that's it. She wont get rid of me. Kiss me or kill me but it will take death to remove me from her and even then I'm sure my ghostly ass will haunt her… possibly in the shower because I am having a lot of fun there right now.

"You said you were gonna dance."

"Hmm…I did."

She screams as I reach forward and pull her quickly into a dip, her laughter bouncing of the walls as I kiss a trail of water down her chest and bring her back up to me. I bite my lip as it hits me again that this is real, I'm not imagining any of this.

 _How is this my life?_

If I closed my eyes right now I'm half convinced that I'd open them and find myself back in my shower at the boarding house, or worse - a cheesy motel somewhere on the road. For this reason I can't not look at her, also she has some other attributes that are attracting my attention. I don't have to worry when my eyes slip from time to time to glance down her body, but when they do meet hers again there is just this white hot flare in her eye, a blush to her cheeks and the overwhelming satisfaction that she had been checking me out too.

"I believe I owe you a dance Miss Gilbert."

The confident spark comes back to her eyes again as she approaches me and places one hand on my shoulder holding out her other for me to take. I softly shake my head no.

"I was thinking something a little more like this…"

I gently pull her into me so that her body is against mine and her arms naturally loop around my neck. She breathes out a sigh and I slide my hand down her back, bending my knees a little so that I can circle my hips and move her with me. She's matching me and we do what has to be an ultimate form of dirty dancing as she brings her right leg up around my hip where I hold it in place but don't stop our dance. It doesn't take long for me to need the shower wall to balance us as she wraps both her legs around me and I lift her up for a more intimate move. We go for as long as the music is playing in our heads, every note that she whimpers, every moan that she draws out of me until we're standing there together completely spent and satisfied.

I behave now, mostly, and actually help her wash, but we're still swaying together. As I stand behind her washing her hair, I take advantage of this position to tug her back to me so I can kiss her deeply because I want her to know I love her before it bleeds out of me.

I think she gets it. She gives me the softest of kisses back as I help her finish up.

As we dry off I see her watching me in the mirror, and yes I definitely like it when she does that. She doesn't even look away when she realises she's been caught.

"Like what you see?"

"Just enjoying the show."

I look over my shoulder at her as I fasten the towel low around my waist knowing that this grin is gonna be plastered on my face for the near future. I'm hoping longer. I like how confident she seems around me and so I can't resist pushing her a bit with something I have have been waiting to ask. I watch her slip her underwear on and as she's fixing her bra I let the question slip out.

"So where _did_ my boxers go?"

It has the effect I was hoping for. Her skin flushes, her cheeks going this sexy shade of pink, almost as good as last night and she is trying to form words.

"Cos personally I hope they're all snuggled up to that lacy red pair of yours."

A satisfied laugh rolls from my mouth because she has a thousand tells and I can read them all. I approach her slowly and run my finger along the edge of her underwear and she squirms not even knowing where to look because I have dropped my towel. It is very endearing that this one question has thrown her off her game so I give her a kiss thats a little dirty and leave her standing in the bathroom watching my fine naked ass go into her bedroom where my clothes are.

"I really could use those boxers right about now."

* * *

Is it possible to feel shiney? I feel shiney.

I've given her a bit of space to finish getting ready but I can make out some of her movements from where I'm seated on the window seat. I have a pretty good view from here because she's left the door open for me. I'm fully clothed once more and I've gathered up a few of her things that she might need for school, her bag, her scarf, I felt that would be good, also I like touching her things.

She sees me as soon as she comes out of the bathroom and I don't think I've ever seen anybody light up like that when they saw me. It's the strangest thing. Her eyes have taken on this rich velvet brown colour and as she gets closer to me the colour deepens and darkens or maybe becomes fuller, I'm not sure. It's like I can't look anywhere else right now and I'm noticing all these tiny details because I'm allowed to stare as long as I want. When she finally gets a foot away from me I begin to wish it were possible to just take moments of your life and freeze them, because as she leans in she gives me what might be my favourite kiss from her yet, just that little hello kiss that couples do. We move towards the door and when my hand reaches the handle I stop us again just to take a moment before the world crashes in around us, to at least be able to own this part of the day. She anticipates my actions and pushes up lightly towards me again, kissing me before I can make my move and I'll be dammed if it isn't birds singing, sun shining, church bell's ringing kind of fantastic.

Ooohh yeah this day is my favourite day.

I turn the handle, opening the door only to find a very caught of guard Jeremy the vampire slayer.

"Ah _shi-…"_

And then my face hurts. A lot. The little git punched me! And he doesn't stop there.

"Jeremy stop it! This isn't you!"

Elena is trying to stop her brother hurtling into the room with the mere power of her voice but it's really not slowing him down.

A stake suddenly appears apparently out of thin air, and I dodge to avoid its permeant damage. Jeremy has worryingly more power than he had the night the mark appeared and apparently a dwindling control on his off switch. I see the sheath attached to his wrist where the stake came from and have to wonder when he even started wearing that. At least he only has one stake. Unfortunately for vampires who aren't obnoxiously original, one is all it takes. I'm going to have to do less evasive action and more actual action in how I deal with him.

"I really don't wanna do this Jer but you're going to force me to do something unfortunate, and I was really hoping we could get along."

"I don't get along with vampires unless they're grey and cold… And kinda veiny."

He takes another swing at me with the stake and I shove him back just to get him out of my space again. My eye is still sore from the punch so clearly the magic hunter genetics are definitely fuelling this burst of teen aggression and not the fact that he caught me in his sisters bedroom.

"Jeremy, it's just Damon he's not hear to hurt you, he would _never_ …never…"

 _Ah crap…_

Elena's eyes meet mine as Jeremy lets out a roar and then the blows come hard and fast. I deflect them as best I can without hurting him much and give Elena an apologetic look of exasperation because why in the hell would she almost trip unto the dark memory of me killing Jeremy in this very room when he is really not in the frame of mind to handle reminders of why he should kill me. I certainly don't want to open that can of writhing torment, especially after how well this morning started.

Jeremy doesn't seem to be tiring out but he can throw fists in my direction all he wants - he's no where near my skill level. While Elena continues trying to reach her brother with words I realise that the only way to take him down is to let him take care of it himself. I let him charge at me and using his momentum against him I push him further into the room watching as most of the damage is done to Elena's drawers but little Gilbert only seems slightly distracted by the splintering wood.

Plan B it is then.

Before Jeremy's grip on reality creates a painful experience in mine I grab him from behind, putting him in a choke hold. Not as easy as I'd imagined as he is doing some very impressive struggling and directing some adult language my way - which quite frankly impresses the hell outta me. It's all fun and games until you run out of air though and eventually he passes out.

Another thing that didn't make the stranglehold easy to pull off was the fact that Elena was watching me do it and saying his name to try and calm him down. I on the other hand, was getting a nasty emotional flashback to when I heard her screaming that name after I'd broken his neck and it rips into me the tiniest bit before I can close the door on it.  
Once I get him down on the ground and out cold I check just to make sure. There's a pulse, he's breathing, he's good. Good.

"I swear he's ok. I promise-."

She comes over to check on Jeremy too and smiles gently at me. "Damon, I knew you weren't going to hurt him." I stand up beside her and we both watch a peacefully asleep Jeremy drool on her bedroom floor.

"Hmm…"

"Hmm, what?"

"It must be a Gilbert thing."

She's confused, "What is?"

"The drool." She punches my arm and rolls her eyes at me and the light seems to come back into the room.

"I'm pretty sure he's not dreaming about you naked."

"Let's hope not. I can only handle one Gilbert with the hots for me."

She tries to stop the smile spreading across her face by biting her lip and it is so sexy I have to kiss her. It has a slightly higher temperature than our last kiss, but with Jeremy out on the floor it's not going to go any further. Besides, I think he's already interrupted enough of our moments together.

Something familiar catches my eye from a partially damaged drawer at Jeremy's feet and I have to pick it up to see Elena's reaction.

"Hey, my underwear, how did you get here?"

I have them swinging back and forth like some dirty little secret in front of Elena's face and she tries to make a grab for them - I make sure she misses.

All she gets is a smirk and another quick kiss from me.

"I'll just leave these in the drawer that you're going to give me."

I reach over and lift the cracked drawer back into its place on the dresser and put my underwear back inside where she'd had it.

"That's _my_ underwear drawer."

"Yeah. I see it working out for me though."

She tries to encourage me to leave by walking away and expecting me to follow. When she reaches the doorway and realises that I still haven't moved she turns and rewards me with a very pointed glare to get my butt out the door. I wait just the tiniest bit more for her to grow impatient so that she props her back against the door frame and then I walk forward allowing myself to quite unnecessarily slide my body against hers on my way through just to make her look back up at me. I lean in quickly, getting in her space so that I can kiss her again. I don't move particularly far away when the kiss ends and I can feel her breath on my lips.

"Can I see you later?" I Kiss her again and she touches my face.

"Yes"

She bites her lip again and I kiss it resting my head back against hers. It's another moment that I'm going to lock down in my memory vault but already it's getting cut short. Out of the corner of my eye I can already see Jeremy move slightly on the floor. This doesn't fill me with a sense of urgency even though the moment might soon call for it.

"I need to go. He'll be coming around soon."

The words sound right, but there's the lacking enthusiasm to them which are making them feel wrong.

She nods but she's having just as hard a time letting go as I am and maybe I'm encouraging it because my hands are defiantly wandering right now, theres a chance I'm grabbing her ass. She leaps into my arms for a deeper kiss and I hear a moan, but its not from Elena.

Apparently my hands aren't the only things wandering, looks like you can't keep a good hunter down. We watch for a moment as Jer begins his slow progression along the floor to defeat the evil vampire kissing his sister. Well I guess if you can't walk, you crawl and if he couldn't crawl - what was that line? You find someone to carry you? Well I ain't gonna stick around until Matt Donovan shows up to help with that.

" _Damon…_ I'm gonna kill you."

It's kinda funny. He's sounds really groggy and has already collapsed after not being able to hold his weight up on one arm.

"You should go, yeah?"

"Yeah I'm going."

I promise myself this is the last kiss and she laughs afterwards as I wiggle my eyebrows at her and dodge Jeremy's weak attempt to grab at my ankle. Then I'm gone.

I can't wait to see her later. I think I should be able to hold off until the end of school… and if not I'm sure I could arrange some free time in an empty classroom for us. What's the point of having the power of compulsion when you don't use it to create intimate rendezvous?

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 **AUTHOR NOTE:**  
 **I only have one more chapter of this left and I'm having trouble getting the time to write it but hopefully I will have it by next weekend and then that's it for this fic. You guys have been great in the reviews and really encouraging either in lovely things you've written or in the enthusiasm you give to your response to a character opinion. Here's hoping the next character POV stops giving me grief and just writes itself. :D**


	13. Katherine

**AUTHOR NOTE:**  
 **The End has come and of course you can't possibly leave without hearing from this one particular character. It seems clear to me that before her unexpected first appearance in season 4, she has definitely been watching these guys all the way through in order to effectively plan her big move.**

 **So that's who I'll leave you with - the myth, the legend, the baddest bitch of all….Katherine Pierce.**

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 **CHAPTER 13**

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 **KATHERINE POV**

This is boring. I'm bored.

Five hundred plus years on the run and the only place that's ever slowed me down is Mystic Falls. One tiny little pit-stop here and already the stupid universe has conspired against me and my Louis Vuitton, open-toed, heels as I sink deeper into this ridiculous excuse for a lawn.

The universe can go and screw itself.

The whole point of my being back here is to check up on my loyal band of _frenemies_ and they can't even do me the common curtesy of leaving the house so that I can get in and out of this place.

Its a shame the boys don't know I'm here, infringing on the intimate security bubble they put around my precious doppleganger. Not one of magic of course, they don't even _suspect_ I'm here, but apparently when it comes to protecting Elena Gilbert, the statement ' _it takes a village'_ rings true and dull. Nothing new there.  
Judging from the complete Scooby gang meeting that happened, Klaus must be starting to get a little impatient with when Elena will make her next blood donation to his hybrid cause. So of course there they both stood; the daring Salvatore brothers both jumping at the chance to come to her rescue.

 _However will she make her choice?_

I watched them all evening gathered around her, drawn in by this 'good girl' exterior that hides her frail, little humanity light bulb. My poor, fragile, copied self, doomed to lead a life of threat like mine, only without the intelligence to just become a vampire already. Instead she just relies on everyone else to take the risks for her. And for some unknown reason they all do.

I can't think why… _I'm_ much prettier.

I'm not being petty, _petty doesn't work with my bone structure_ , and part of this could be brought about by the fact that I've been reduced to lurking outside her house _in the rain_ , but I loathe the little bitch. Everything just falls right in her lap.

I had to make it through childbirth, the death of my family and centuries of fleeing from an immortal hybrid, so you can understand why I'm a little upset that half the time my shadow self lives a better life than I do!

But at least I live in better, more expensive shoes.

Little Miss self righteous couldn't handle a single day in my heels. One tiny little blister on her perfect spotless life would have her flicking the switch to change her channel.

But I'm Katherine Pierce, I survive.

Yeah I've done some pretty horrible things to make that happen, but I don't turn off - I never have. I deal with it. She wouldn't last a week as a vampire without everyone fawning all over her. But I'd love to see her try.

One of these days I may just have to get rid of her altogether, there's only so many times you can wonder what you'd look like as a poor imitation of yourself before the novelty wears off. But one Gilbert nuisance at a time.

Right now first on my list is my current vendetta against their garden foliage - if this bush snags my hair one more time I will shred it to a stump with my nails!  
… Ok so I would never do that to my nails but my patience is wearing thin. I've wasted most of the night waiting to find out how Jeremy is getting along with his new found hunting abilities. I hear the brat can draw, so hopefully he took the time to sketch something of this elusive body tattoo that I keep hearing snippets off.

 _Doesn't Jeremy Gilbert have the most adorable puppy brown eyes?_ Its like I go away for a while and when I get back he's got all _cute_. What? He's not _my_ brother.

Personally I don't get the whole family bond thing at all. All these fractured little units tied together by blood. Elijah and Klaus, Damon and Stefan, Elena and Jeremy… the ties that bind. I could gag.  
Family is just another bunch of people who can betray you, they're the ones that know how to hurt you the best. Generally I've always used this flaw to my advantage. I have a few indiscretions linked to this area in my past and they usually proved to be both effective and useful.

Sadly it seems a little late in the game to make our youngest Gilbert fall madly in love with me - _but wouldn't that be a little strange if I did?_ I mean my resemblance to Elena is _uncanny_ and even though she was adopted by mama and papa Gilbert it would be borderline incestuous for Jer to fall for a big sis look-a-like, tut tut.  
Anyway, the whole idea is particularly useless to me right now seeing as he left the house an hour ago with his wicca girlfriend, Bon Bon the Bennet witch. Now the only thing preventing me from getting inside to rifle through his things, is waiting for _loves third wheel_ to leave the house.

Honestly I feel bad for him, hanging around all this time waiting for the girl to pick him… _again_. My poor, innocent Damon, when will you learn? It's always gonna be Stefan.

I outta know, I loved them both… sort off.

Damon's always had this endearing and inconvenient obsessiveness to his love, its certainly made him useful to me over the years even when he didn't know it. A hundred years spent waiting to get me out of a tomb I was never in, and I was watching him the whole time, just over his shoulder. I checked in every decade or so, particularly in the 80's when he had his switch off and was all dangerous and sexy; still too blind to see that the elusive Katherine Pierce was right under his nose as he grabbed all those fake ID's for me while I lived above his favourite bar. I doubt he cared all that much that the people he stole them from bore a striking resemblance to yours truly - he wasn't caring about a whole lot right then; a particular trait I would have found useful in the 90's when I sent Isobel to him. Really I'm surprised he didn't kill her, but I guess it worked out well for me as I put her to use wreaking my havoc on Mystic Falls before I made my grand entrance.

Didn't he sleep with her too? _Well that's a little kinky._

He really has a thing for the Petrova Bloodline. I guess it's just good genes. Cause lets face it, the only reason Elena has even half the hold on Stefan and Damon that she has is simply because she's a cheap knock off of me.

Urrrhhghh leave already! My leg is cramping and I'm freezing out here! - _Is what I would say if I was some pathetic little human_. But seriously, this weather is doing damage to my lady-like sense of calm, and what's a pretty girl without her charming personality?

From the moment everybody else left the house, which feels like my entire lifetime ago, the pair of them have been inside arguing. And fine, yes I've been snooping. After all, the fight might have been about me. I'm sure they blame me for all their terrible problems. But no, it was just more of the usual. Let me see If I could recreate the whiney frequency of Elena's voice - I've gotten quite good at it.

 _"I can't believe you Damon!", and 'After all this time you still don't see….blah blah blah."_

Now let me see if I can _do_ damon,

" _I did it for your own good Elena.",_

Hmm maybe make it a little more gut wrenchingly, desperate with just a hint of a dangerous drawl.

 _"I did it… for your own good… Elena.",_

I gave up listening to that awfulness as soon as their phrases started going on repeat for like the millionth time. Stake me now, this could take them a while. I thought a better use of _my_ time would be to pick the leaves out of my hair so that at least I'm still presentable if I get caught out here.

If a girls gotta go it may as well be glamourous.

Honestly I may die from boredom right now. If there was even the slimmest chance that maybe they've moved on to other interesting topics then I'd be willing to take a moment and listen in again. They really have bigger fish to fry - Klaus for instance. _But_ I'm pretty sure they're still talking about their pointless lives.  
Although if they keep shouting like that they'll take the decision right out of my hands and I'll simply be forced to listen as my brain dribbles out my ears.

I have a couple more leaves to untangle from myself but I guess looking my best is going to have to get cut short - their voices are getting closer to the front door. I have only a moment to take another step back into this devil's snare of a bush before Damon comes barging out of the house, forcing me to get back quickly out of sight and making me break a heel in the process.

"Son of a bitc- " Seriously? This is not my night.

He comes to an abrupt halt in the garden and I almost think he knows I'm there. It's a long moment before he simply grits his teeth and instead wrenches himself back around towards the house. That's fine by me, storm away, at least then you'll be too distracted to notice little ole me. He's clamoured back up the steps again and is almost to the point of touching the door handle when he seems to change his mind and doesn't make the final push back into the house. Instead he paces down the steps again, unto the path and stands looking up at the porch and glowering at the door. I don't know how he manages to have that level of smoulder in his steely blue gaze, it's really quite something.

He seems really pissed.

Now what has the petulant little cheerleader done to get his panties in such a twist?

I'm not given a whole hell of a lotta time to dwell on this before the front door opens and there she stands with her straight, flat hair and disapproving glare - _the anti-me._  
I do have other things to do tonight, many, many important things but if I can witness yet another moment where her life is not perfect then I will revel in it. So I'm staying for this whole exasperating show.

"You lied to me Damon."

"I didn't _lie,_ I held back some _small details_ of our past."

Well this is intriguing.

Honestly I don't know why she gets so tied up over people lying. Everybody lies, yet another advantage to my 'trust no one' policy and a side paragraph to my 'plan-for-every-outcome' strategy.

"You took memories from me, you made me forget things about us - I can't believe you did that and didn't tell me."

"What difference would it have made? huh? I couldn't have people finding out I was back in town at that time and _we'd_ only just _met._ The safest way was to compel you to forget that you ever met me. Can't we just leave it alone? You know everything now, I gave it all back."

Sounds more than reasonable. Humans always thinking they own things like memories, blood, their right to live.

"Come on Elena, can we please let this go?"

Elena is nodding in fake agreement.

"Just let it go? Ok."

I smirk as I watch Damon take a step towards her. Over a hundred years experience with women and this eighteen year old has him forgetting that girls don't give up on a fight that easily. He's just reached the top step on the porch again when she lands her new attack.

"What about the other memory?"

It's almost comical to watch Damon get this frustrated. It must be like some kind of torturous foreplay for him, he has to be getting something out of it for them to fight the way they do.

"Arrgh come on Elena, _the other one?_ It was just something I needed to get off my chest."

"You _knew_ me then, we were friends."

Ooooh, poor choice of words Elena, this one phrase gets Damon all riled up, it's kinda hot.

"Yeah, we were _friends_ , and you were with Stefan."

And there it is. Tale as old as time.

"For once I was trying not to be the pathetic _moron_ that fell in love with his brother's girl again!"

I guess I'm somewhat to blame for Damon's tragic role in all this… Well what can I say? Sorry for making your life more interesting Damon? Sorry for not letting you die as a normal, boring human? I guess some people can't handle the fact that meeting me is a complete game changer in their menial, ordinary lives.

I mean look at him right now, clearly Damon can't handle people that look like me. He's breathing heavily, his eyes are blazing and his nose is even doing this weird nostril flare thing.

"That _whole day_ , before I even showed up in your room, I had to stare it right in the face!"

Did I forget that Damons still ranting? Or was I merely trying to block it out? We'll never know.

"You just disappeared! We'd tried to kill Katherine at that stupid masquerade ball and then you were just _gone!_ If I had thought that she had harmed one hair on your head I would have pulled out whatever passes for a heart, from her chest!"

 _Me-oow_ Damon. Don't hold back, tell me how you _really feel._

"But it wasn't her, it was Rose and then it was a freaking original vampire that's managed to make you a target and the _whole time_ we go to mount our daring rescue plan, Stefan's trying to get me to feel bad, to feel _anything_. The whole brother bonding road trip was just this relentless push to get me to admit that the _only_ reason I was there was because I had _feelings_ for you."

Few things could scare a human more than Damon Salvatore approaching them with that level of anger on his face but apparently Elena has more fire in her than I give her credit for. However it is she does it, she manages to stop Damon within a foot of her so that even though he continues this _rather long winded speech_ , he doesn't dare reach for her. I smirk again, I bet he wants to though.

"Stefan's being all noble knight in vampire armour, real hero hair type stuff. ' _You love her too', 'It's Elena', 'I can't think of a better way to die', **and I could't think of one either!**_ I would have taken an arrow in the heart, walked into a burning building, _desiccated in a tomb_ for you and I didn't want to admit why! It scared the _hell_ out of me when we couldn't find you, when I didn't know where you were, and I wasn't allowed to feel like that! And then we save you and you walk down those stairs and for a moment I think you're looking at _me_ like I was the one you were waiting for. But it's Stefan. I'm just standing there like an _idiot,_ with you thanking me over his shoulder, and even that meant more to me than it should have."

Well that sounds pathetic. See this is why I chose Stefan, Damon cares too much.

"You _did_ save me Damon, you and Stefan _both_ saved me."

"Yeah well at the end of the day he was the one taking you home and I got scotch, lots and lots of scotch. So forgive me for expressing a thought that night, but I had something I needed to say and you needed to hear it."

"But not to _remember_ it?"

" _No,_ Not to remember it, because then I was just _that guy_ again!"

 _Please,_ I've been _that girl_ all my life and I've always come out on top.

"Elena…You deserved to be with someone good, you deserved to live your life, grow up, be with someone who was better for you, that's all I knew. You might have thought I didn't get that back then but I did. I still do."

"You think you get it? The supposedly selfish guy who tells me he _loves me_ and then wipes my memory so it doesn't ruin my relationship with his _brother?!_ **You _are_ an idiot!"**

Pretty much, yep.

"Oh _I'm_ the idiot? I'm not the one standing here making an excuse for another one of my screw-ups. Don't do that! I did what I wanted to do. I always do what I want to do. Knowing any of this back then wouldn't have changed a _thing_. I hurt the people I care about, you _know_ that. and if I don't actually kill them then I push them away."

 _"Well I'm still here!"_

"Yeah?! _Well maybe you shouldn't be!"_

She slaps him hard.

I didn't think she had that in her.

It shocks both of them but there's no surprise as to how Damon takes it. Catching her fist in case she does it again is a wise move but pushing further into her space is an interesting choice. I would have snapped her bony little wrist for that but then I'm not in love with the little Prom Queen…

Is she the Prom Queen though? I never hear any of the gossip… Like I care.

"Let go of me Damon. _Let go of me."_

"Stop. Hitting. Me."

There is a roll of thunder overhead and the rain decides it wants to rip open the sky. That means I'm stuck here until this plays out and I'm getting drenched for all my troubles. This is usually why I have people for this stuff. Another peel of thunder curls across the sky and I miss something that Damon says before he begins to stalk away from the house and out into the night of perpetual disaster; Elena chases after him and manages to pull him to a stop three feet from where I am holding my breath, thankfully she also tugs him around until he is face to face with her again. I could almost be grateful to her, its a touching moment.  
The storm certainly makes the scene very dramatic but they're both looking a little pathetic from getting soaked by the rain. Damon's hair however, is doing this fantastic mens-shower-commercial thing as he runs his hand through it, Elena on the other hand… awe honey you look just _awful._

This looks like it's going to be another touching scene of will they won't they and unfortunately for me the weather does nothing to drown out Elena's voice as she holds on to Damon and gets ready to make her big speech. I'm going to have to listen to this.

"Stop trying to make it easy for me to let you walk away. You think I don't know who you are? That I don't know the things you've done? You think I don't see the way Bonnie gets this look on her face when I go to meet you. The way I _hear_ Caroline tell me that she thinks I've lost my mind for being with you?"

You have got to be kidding me. _These two got together?!_

"You are the most frustrating person I've ever met in my life, and every time I think we're actually getting somewhere you throw something in on purpose to stop us from working. But you're not the only one who gets a choice here Damon!"

"You want to talk about c _hoices?"_

"Are you seriously bringing that up right now?"

"It's why I left _in the first place!_ Me and Stefan both agreed we'd do it - I just got the short straw."

"I didn't want you to leave!"

"You didn't give me anything to stay for!"

"You want to base that decision you made to leave me on a quick choice that I had to make _over the phone,_ between the boyfriend I wasn't over yet and You! You make me so mad!"

"If you're so mad at me Elena, if you know how wrong I am for you, then why are you staying _with me?!"_

"I'm with you because _I love you!_

… duh.

"I _love_ you Damon."

That face actually looks good on Damon, all soft and hopeful - I remember that face. It's tragic that he's waited 150 years to hear somebody say those words back… I guess I should feel bad.

Hardly a shocker that Elena's little statement now has Damon throwing himself all over her, why don't we just pause here while I roll my eyes into a more comfortable position. There's certainly a lot of hands in new places, but as much as I'm glad that I got to see the fight I really could do without this particular visual.

Things have certainly heated up between these two since the first time I body doubled for Elena. When I met him on the porch that night he came in all slow and tentative, like I was going to bolt when really all I was trying to do was buy more time to score an invite into that house. Guess I could play the innocent and sweet card pretty well. But judging from the way she has her tongue down his throat now, my tactics would need to change a little before I try that stunt again. Obviously I'm not seeing the first kiss here, not from the way Damon's hands are groping parts of her under her top and she's half climbing him as I stand here and watch from the bushes like some twisted stalker. The PDA is getting a bit out of hand when you're mounting your creature of the night boyfriend in your front garden after midnight.

Damon has at least managed to carry her up unto the porch where they now seem to be making it the stage for their soft porno. That's an interesting use of the front door…

Urgh get a room!

Which, ok, fine, there they go, back inside the house…

...

And now I'm bored again.

Time to leave a pointless night's stakeout in the dirt, where the only causality of this night lies: my heel. Also, I am many kinky things but this particular brand of voyeurism was never really my bag, so if they're gonna continue making animal noises from whatever unfortunate room they've landed in, I'm gonna leave.

At this point I would strut down this street into the night, but with a broken heel its hard for a girl to make a climatic exit so use your imagination. Things are definitely heating up in Mystic Falls and if they're _together_ it looks like its time to send Stefan some love. With all this familial betrayal in the air he's bound to reach out to the only person he can trust…me.

Due to the recent relationship development, I doubt any of them have a clue as to what's ahead of them with this hunter's mark. I bet everybody has their own ideas for the cure already, but as long as Klaus doesn't get to it first then there's still time to put my plan A into action.  
He thinks he's gonna use it to neuter the threat from Ric Saltzman, but I am only one hunter's map away from finding that cure and ramming it down Klaus Michaelson's throat. Then I'll be free to live whatever way I want, with whoever I want. I definitely see myself taking on more of a power role in the future, I've always had this feeling that I was born to rule.

 _All hail Katherine Pierce._

 **Game on.**

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 **THE END**

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 **It definitely took me a while to break into Katherine's character mindset but once I did I found it hard to stop, which was kinda worrying when you fall asleep dreaming about lines for her to use. Having said that though, Katherine's POV was probably not the hardest chapter to write - that would go to Tyler. I actually hadn't written his chapter until just before I was going to post the next update and then felt bad for leaving him out. The trouble was I found he had very little to say because I don't think he would even care who Elena ends up with, he's too worried about his pack and Klaus during this season.**

 **To the Guest reviewer CDLVI - I really appreciated your long rant :D thanks for the review. I would have responded but fanfiction dot net doesn't let me do that with guest reviews. As you can see I hadn't forgotten the missing memories that Elena got when becoming a vampire and I did manage to slip in the little note you had about the agreement Stefan and Damon made about one of them leaving, its in there briefly but its there.**

 **I hope you all enjoyed the FIc and hopefully I will be back again with another TVD story.**


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